Zille twitter: what’s the DA’s next move

I DO not belong to any political party.

My wife and I voted for DA candidates in recent elections, and I suppose that had we wanted to join a party, we would have chosen the DA.

But the DA has clearly done some “evolving” since those not-so-distant times and had we joined it, we would certainly have now resigned our membership.

This latest revelation – aimed at Helen Zille, but conveying a very much bigger message – is not just disturbing, but mind-boggling in its arrogance and stupidity.

In some ways I see it as worse than the “one settler one bullet” fiasco of a few years ago – and that was quite bad enough.

I doubt that any reasonable, educated adult in South Africa – or elsewhere, for that matter – seriously believes that nothing good came from colonisation of this country.

But if they do believe that, they should be allowed, as individuals, to express it as an opinion.

As an opinion it would not reflect any credit on them, but that is not the point.

It seems that DA members are obliged to mouth only the claptrap “authorised” by the party.

In any civilised country one is surely an individual first and a party member second?

Where, in this stance by the DA, is freedom of the individual? Where is freedom of speech? Where indeed is the principle of honest belief and comment?

What is the status of educated, intelligent and fearless discourse?

These things are integral to the foundations of civilisation.

(But we must be careful here: these things are imports into the country. Must they be rejected on those grounds? The hold of civilisation on South Africa is tenuous enough already. The DA is not helping to strengthen it.)

Should I be worried about what might happen to me if this letter is published? Is this what we’ve come to? Or is this in our near future? Who does the DA think will buy into this appalling dishonesty?

Or is it an attempt at mass brainwashing – in which case “buying into it” is unnecessary?

A party capable of this posture does not deserve to represent anyone.

Yet obviously the DA is taking this line to increase its membership. What does that tell us? The ANC will perhaps welcome this farcical display by its main competitor. I hope it capitalises on it. It’s a golden opportunity.

Sirion Robertson, Grahamstown