{"id":33264,"date":"2017-03-17T10:00:46","date_gmt":"2017-03-17T10:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/outrage-over-helen-zille-s-colonialism-tweets\/"},"modified":"2017-03-17T10:00:18","modified_gmt":"2017-03-17T10:00:18","slug":"outrage-over-helen-zille-s-colonialism-tweets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/outrage-over-helen-zille-s-colonialism-tweets\/","title":{"rendered":"Outrage over Helen Zille’s colonialism tweets"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Former DA leader apologises for social media posts suggesting that the legacy of colonialism was not all negative.}<\/p>\n

The former leader of South Africa’s main opposition party has sparked a public outcry over a series of social media posts that suggested colonialism brought benefits to the country. <\/p>\n

“For those claiming legacy of colonialism was ONLY negative, think of our independent judiciary, transport infrastructure, piped water,” Helen Zille, the ex-head of the Democratic Alliance (DA) party and the current premier of the Western Cape province, wrote on Twitter on Thursday.<\/p>\n

She tweeted that the transition into “specialised healthcare and medication” may have not been possible without “colonial influence”.<\/p>\n

Zille’s comments drew strong criticism from political opponents and those within her own party, as well as on social media.<\/p>\n

Mmusi Maimane, who took the reins from Zille in 2015 to become the DA’s first black leader, criticised his predecessor, tweeting “colonialism, like apartheid, was a system of oppression and subjugation. It can never be justified”.<\/p>\n

Maimane told local media that Zille’s tweets were “completely unacceptable and indefensible”.<\/p>\n

In a statement , the party reiterated Maimane\u2019s remarks, saying colonialism “oppressed millions of people and violated human rights in a cruel and inhumane way”.<\/p>\n

The DA, which won 22 percent of the vote in 2014’s general election, has been gaining popularity and trying to shed its image as a “white” party before 2019’s presidential election.<\/p>\n

It promotes itself as a liberal equal-opportunity party, but efforts to broaden its appeal among black voters have been hurt by social media scandals, and the party has struggled to present itself as a credible alternative to the ruling African National Congress (ANC)<\/p>\n

{{Opponents demand Zille’s removal}}<\/p>\n

The ANC urged the DA to immediately remove Zille as Western Cape premier, calling her tweets “reckless and ignorant claims”.<\/p>\n

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), another opposition party, also demanded Zille “step down”.<\/p>\n

The EFF called Zille’s remarks “cold-hearted racism”.<\/p>\n

South Africa was colonised by the Dutch and British for about 300 years. The country then experienced white-minority rule under apartheid, which ended in 1994.<\/p>\n

Racial tensions, however, have continued to endure in the years after apartheid.<\/p>\n

\"Helen<\/figure>\n

Source:Al Jazeera<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Former DA leader apologises for social media posts suggesting that the legacy of colonialism was not all negative.} The former leader of South Africa’s main opposition party has sparked a public outcry over a series of social media posts that suggested colonialism brought benefits to the country. “For those claiming legacy of colonialism was ONLY […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[100],"byline":[160],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-33264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-48","tag-africa","byline-theophile-niyitegeka"],"bylines":[{"id":160,"name":"Th\u00e9ophile Niyitegeka","slug":"theophile-niyitegeka","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":3}],"contributors":[{"id":160,"name":"Th\u00e9ophile Niyitegeka","slug":"theophile-niyitegeka","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":3}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33264\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33264"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=33264"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=33264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}