The DA has suspended Renaldo Gouws after he allegedly went on a racist tirade
After being sworn in as a DA member of parliament last Friday, Gouws’ purportedly racist and homophobic video clips have been making the rounds on social media.
In the recording, Gouws can be heard allegedly saying: “Kill the k****rs, kill the f****ng n****rs.”
This week, a video went viral on social media purportedly featuring Gouws saying that white South Africans are being beaten and killed.
He allegedly added that white people are undergoing reverse apartheid.
Disciplinary charges
Solly Malatsi, a spokesperson for the DA, confirmed to Sunday World that Gouws has been suspended after an investigation found that he was indeed behind the videos.
“The DA has established that the video in which Renaldo Gouws uses execrable language is in fact genuine and not fake, as initially suspected,” said Malatsi.
“The DA federal executive has therefore suspended Mr Gouws with immediate effect while he faces disciplinary charges before the party’s federal legal commission.”
This happened soon after Gouws said he was being harassed because of a 2009 video he uploaded while still a student.
He asserted that in 2018, he made a public apology for the videos.
The video clip, according to Gouws, always comes up when he is approached.
Claims of racism refuted
The video, he claimed, was taken during a time when Jacob Zuma, the ANC president in 2009, and EFF leader Julius Malema, the ANC Youth League president at the time, were chanting songs about “killing people based on their race”.
“I refute any claims of racism or being a racist,” said Gouws on X.
“I can, however, see how my message was distorted in the way it was delivered by me, and I take full responsibility for the actions of my younger and more immature self.
“For that, I apologise unreservedly.”
