DA must act – and fast

LIKE former DA leader Helen Zille, Dianne Kohler Barnard was a journalist 11 years ago when she decided to enter politics, having worked at the SABC through the end of apartheid and into the first post-democratic decade. An active member of the media, she had a profile in the Broadcast, Electronic Media and Allied Workers Union and helped found the SABC HIV/Aids committee.

That alone should have prepared her for a life of accuracy, acumen and attention to detail. But all three qualities seemed to elude the DA’s former police spokeswoman when she last week shared a Facebook post that looked back fondly on the era of PW Botha.

Written by controversial journalist Paul Kirk, the post took on all the nostalgic racist framing that should make patriots of all races feel outraged. Yet Kohler Barnard didn’t seem to notice.

That’s inexcusable. The DA should take the most severe action, as soon as possible, against an MP who has set her party back. Where she’d years ago gained traction as the health spokeswoman, taking on dangerous HIV dissidents, she may now find herself described as the party’s white dinosaur.

The ANC and other rivals will surely milk the Facebook post for a long time, and it may come to trouble the DA’s ambitious leader Mmusi Maimane in ways he may not be able to predict. He may be better placed to fire her, although other restorative acts will also have to take place within the party and among supporters. Anything less may be seen as a cop-out, showing a lack of commitment to the party’s programme.

What was particularly glaring about this event is that a party that has touted its training programme as being responsible for producing some of South Africa’s most capable young politicians didn’t seem to provide adequate training to one of its veterans.