Johannesburg – The DA has conceded that a clause on race in the party’s constitution should be amended to not target black leaders who speak out against racism.
Retired judge Jeanette Traverso recently pointed out a serious flaw in the DA’s constitution on misconduct regarding the contentious issue of race.
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The former deputy judge president of the Western Cape High Court told the DA that it was not an offence for members to publicly criticise the party if they felt unfairly prejudiced based on their race.
DA federal council chairperson Helen Zille said the party fully agreed with Traverso. “Obviously someone telling the truth cannot be committing an offence. But it is sometimes more complex gett ing to the truth than many people may imagine. Just because someone alleges something does not mean it is necessarily true,” she told Sunday World.
Read more: Top judge slams DA’s policy on claims of racism by black leaders
“It is crucial to make the point that no member has been charged under this clause of the constitution and to suggest so otherwise is a total lie.”
A contentious clause of the party’s constitution reads: “Any member, including public representative, is guilty of misconduct if he/she publicly alleges or implies that he/she, or any group of members have been unfairly prejudiced or any member or group of members unjustifi ably preferred as a consequence of that member’s race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language or birth.”
However, Traverso said if a member had, in fact, been unfairly prejudiced as a consequence of that member’s race, etc, it could not possibly constitute an offence if the member made this allegation publicly. To constitute an offence, the allegation must be shown to be untrue, she said. Traverso headed a committee that reviewed the DA’s disciplinary processes in the wake of the 2019 general elections. The DA has been rocked on many occasions by allegations of racism, which led to many of its senior black leaders leaving the party.
Members had complained that the party’s disciplinary processes were biased and took too long, among other problems.
Zille dismissed claims that disciplinary processes were used to neutralise black leaders and hound them out of the party.
“Members of all races face charges, irrespective of their race, and it is false to claim otherwise. People sometimes, unfortunately, play the race card when they have run out of excuses,” she said.
“We have scores and scores of top black leaders who have never faced any charges whatsoever. In contrast, many prominent white leaders have. It is not a function of race, and it is abuse of the facts to turn it into a racial issue,” Zille said.
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