Renaldo Gouws, a former DA MP, expressed his shock at being deprived of both his parliamentary seat and political membership following three months of disciplinary proceedings.
Gouws claimed that the party’s federal legal commission (FLC) was responsible for the lengthy disciplinary hearing and had recommended that he stay within the party and resume official parliamentary duties.
This would, however, require him to stop using social media and to shut down his YouTube channel.
This came about after his racist video surfaced and the party suspended him for making offensive remarks.
The DA suspended Gouws in June after he went on a racist tirade. After being sworn in as a DA MP in June, his purportedly racist and homophobic video clips surfaced on social media.
Social media videos
However, Gouws said he was not found guilty of recording and uploading a video containing discriminatory, hateful, or racist remarks.
“I then had the opportunity to provide my heads of argument in which I could demonstrate that I wasn’t guilty of any of the charges,” he said.
“I submitted it and was confident that I would be found not guilty based on our constitution having clear indicators as to innocence or guilt in these areas.”
No reason given for termination
He said he then received an e-mail from the federal executive (Fedex) informing him of his membership termination.
FedEx terminated his membership without providing any reason during his disciplinary hearing period, and he claimed the attachment demonstrated to him that the FLC had recommended otherwise.
“My question is why did we waste three months asking actual lawyers to meet and engage with me to find a suitable sanction against me, and then once it is produced, the Fedex, which didn’t sit on any of those meetings and honestly didn’t spend three months to go over every single detail, suddenly decided no and then implemented a harsher sentence.”
He said he also could not appeal the decision due to the DA constitution, which insists that a decision by the FLC could not be appealed.
Meanwhile, the SAHRC says the Gouws matter will appear on November 21 at Equality Court.
