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If the DA is so committed to human rights, why does it inhibit free speech in the Western Cape?

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Muhammad Khalid Sayed MPL is a member of the Western Cape Provincial Legislature where he serves as the ANC's Deputy Chief Whip. He is also the outgoing provincial chairperson of the ANC Youth League in the Western Cape. He writes in his personal capacity.

While the DA wishes to articulate itself as the defender of liberalism and individual rights in SA, where it governs it institutionalises a clamp-down of personal liberties, even in the hallowed walls of a legislature.

Hesitant to quote him, the work of the US political scientist Francis Fukuyama is useful when he reminds us that longevity of political institutions is often the test of their strength. In fact, some would argue that this applies to any institution.

We must, therefore, cherish and nurture the human rights culture that is so young in South Africa.

We must insist that despite the systematic undermining of women and children through violence, we reiterate the rights of all. We cannot strengthen the dignity of women and children by simply reducing the rights of men.

However, the recently concluded debate by the former Western Cape premier and Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Helen Zille, and the former editor of City Press and senior journalist Ferial Haffajee, raised some interesting food for thought in the context of this human rights society

Not to rehash that debate, but suffice to say Zille was defending freedom of speech while Haffajee and the South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef), according to Zille, were defending human dignity, as per Section 10 of the Constitution.

Zille’s role in this debate was particularly fascinating because back in 2013, when I served as a researcher for the ANC caucus in the Western Cape Provincial Parliament, two incidents occurred in the House where the DA speaker ruled against the ANC. Zille was the premier at the time.

The first occurred in June of that year when Max Ozinsky, an ANC member, said that Helen Suzman “wanted to kill us”. Zille vociferously objected to that statement, despite parliamentary privilege, and asked (read: instructed) the deputy speaker at the time, Piet Pretorius, to rule that it was unparliamentary. Ozinsky insisted he had the right to freedom of speech and left the House after refusing to withdraw the statement. In solidarity, the ANC caucus then staged a walk-out.

The second incident occurred in the last sitting of 2013, when again Ozinsky was accused of running commentary and laughing during an address to the House by the then-MEC for public works and transport, Robin Carlisle. While spirits were high in the House, Ozinsky accused the DA of hypocrisy, corruption and collusion. Usual political banter, one would say. Yet, again he was ruled out of order. This time by the speaker, Richard Majola, and after he was asked to leave the House, the ANC caucus again staged a walk-out.

While she may have disapproved of what he said, Zille certainly did not come to Ozinsky’s defence in his right to say it. Zille betrayed the spirit of Evelyn Hall.

Six years later and a week or two after Zille and Haffajee’s engagement, the leader of the opposition in the Western Cape Provincial Parliament, Cameron Dugmore, was asked to withdraw a statement he had made about the MEC for local government in the province, Anton Bredell.

On 29 August 2019, Dugmore had asked Premier Alan Winde whether he would take any action against members of his provincial executive who faced pending corruption and/or criminal charges. He had suggested that the MEC for local government had a “DA bias” when dealing with wayward councillors.

For suggesting that the MEC had a “DA bias”, Dugmore was asked to withdraw his comment. This, while everyone knows that the MEC is the chairperson of the DA in the Western Cape. The MEC is thoroughly and utterly DA, to all intents and purposes. Yet it was ruled that to state that he is “DA-biased” is unparliamentary.

Surely, if he was anything else, he should be recalled by the DA?

What all of this signifies is the DA’s continual hypocrisy. While, on the one hand, Zille wishes to portray herself as a defender of the right to freedom of speech, she silences people when they speak up. While the DA wishes to articulate itself as the defender of liberalism and individual rights in South Africa, where it governs it institutionalises a clampdown of personal liberties, even in the hallowed walls of a legislature.

There should be no doubt that just as the ANC speaks up against DA hypocrisy, its attempt to rewrite history, its corruption and collusion, it will also speak up when the hard-won human rights are trampled upon. As we celebrate Heritage Month, we must reaffirm our struggle and young human rights culture which are part of this heritage. DM

Muhammad Khalid Sayed MPL is the deputy chief whip of the ANC in the Western Cape Provincial Parliament and ANC Youth League Western Cape provincial chairperson.

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