When political parties were happily coming together and joining hands to form a government of national unity to take the country forward to peace and prosperity, out pops a racist, grunting the k-word, spoiling the GNU broth.
Renaldo Gouws is seen on video spewing explicit hate speech, calling for the killing of black people. What makes his abhorrent racist comments even more outrageous is that he is not an ordinary citizen but a MP from the DA.
How could an evil man who uses such derogatory language at his fellow human beings sit in a democratic institution as our Parliament, the highest legislative authority in the land?
The video was made 16 years ago and lay hidden from public scrutiny.
It now surfaces at the most inopportune time for the DA when it is in the midst of negotiations with ANC to form a coalition government. It could weaken its hand at the negotiating table. So, Renaldo hasn’t done his party any favour.
Though he has apologised for his obnoxious delinquent behaviour, it was not enough to get him out of trouble.
After verifying the authenticity of the video, the party has suspended its racist MP. He also faces disciplinary action from the party’s Federal Legal Commission.
The Human Rights Commission (HRC) has gone even further. It’s hauled him before the Equality Court to face charges of hate speech. It is also asking the court to impose appropriate punishment for his racist rant.
Opposition parties, however, are rubbing their hands with glee at the DA’s troubles at such a crucial time in the GNU negotiations.
A suspension is not enough, they say. They want the DA to publicly apologise for its delinquent MP and boot out all racist bigots within its ranks.
Gouws belongs to the past and has no place in a democracy coming out of its painful past.
While it may not bode well for a government of national unity, what it certainly reveals is that, though apartheid has been removed from the statute books, it has not been expunged from the minds and hearts of some people in the country. It confirms what many believe, that the DA hasn’t completely shed its racist cloak.
Remnants of the old evil still pop up every now and then.
* Thyagaraj Markandan, Kloof.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media
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