Zille’s ‘tax revolt’ sees DA MPs slug it out on Twitter
Debate should not be dismissed, effecting change by voting must be encouraged: Van Damme
DA PARLIAMENTARIAN Phumzile van Damme has torn into former party leader and outgoing Western Cape Premier Helen Zille over her call for a tax revolt.
Yesterday, Van Damme took to social media to square up against Zille, who last week said she would organise a tax revolt if the Zondo Commission did not result in the imprisonment of the corrupt within a reasonable time.
In a series of tweets, Van Damme stated that she would not be campaigning only “for my & many others’ work to be thrown in our faces & made to seem pointless”.
She also charged at Zille over a column she wrote. “I also find it odd that nowhere in your column do you encourage people to use the power of their vote to bring about change.”
The former premier hit back, saying she had “kept my powder dry while the wilfully ignorant trolls pummelled me on distortions of what I actually said about the #TaxRevolt”.
Responding to one of her Twitter followers about possible outrage that could ensue, an unperturbed Zille said: “Yes, I’m waiting for the virtue-signalling trolls to get going.”
Van Damme retorted that she was not what Zille had described in her tweet about trolls.
“It would be insulting if you dismissed healthy debate & questions from your colleagues as thus. All ideas must be weighed up, thoroughly assessed & debated. No one is the oracle & has the monopoly on ideas in the DA I joined,” she said.
Van Damme also said it was a pity African News Agency (ANA) that the debate on Zille’s proposal happened on Twitter.
She then asked Zille to answer questions she had posed to her last week, which included whether Western Cape residents would be encouraged to take part in a tax revolt.
Van Damme did not pull her punches when DA MP and former head of policy Gwen Ngwenya ventured into the debate.
Ngwenya had tweeted that “the soundness of a tax revolt aside, it’s based on (a) premise where the corrupt get off scot-free and (the) party that facilitated corruption won election”.
“1st prize obviously is prosecutions & changed voter behaviour. This is about what happens should those two things NOT happen,” she said.
Van Damme said she assumed Ngwenya considered Zille’s idea thoroughly before supporting it.
“I’ll wait & take a non-response as you not actually having the answers because it’s just a populist idea that hasn’t been fully developed or thought out,” she said.
Ngwenya said: “I have not articulated a position on a tax revolt. It’s risky, it’s interesting. I like to take my time and read. But I do understand the parameters of the debate, which I felt important to reiterate.”
Van Damme laughed off her colleague, saying: “You’re advocating for something you haven’t actually read about. Nidlala kabi ngabantu (you play with people), Gwen.”
Van Damme is one of the party officials and leaders, including Mmusi Maimane, who distanced the DA from Zille’s comments on tax revolts and maintained that it was not a party policy.