DA’s Kohler Barnard to face disciplinary
The DA has hauled Dianne Kohler Barnard before a disciplinary committee for sharing a FB post idolising PW Botha.
|||Parliament - DA MP Dianne Kohler Barnard could be in hot water with Parliament after her party hauled her before the disciplinary committee for sharing a post on Facebook idolising apartheid and its leader PW Botha.
Kohler Barnard’s support for the comments on Thursday led to the DA to take disciplinary action against her.
She could also be in trouble with the ethics committee in Parliament if it decides to charge her.
However, the chairman of the ethics committee Amos Masondo could not be reached for comment on Thursday.
Spokesman for Parliament Luzuko Jacobs said he did not want to be drawn on what the ethics committee can and cannot do.
“The (ethics) code requires that members (of parliament) must, in the performance of their duties and responsibilities, be committed to the eradication of all forms of discrimination,” he said.
He said the circumstance of each case was determined on its own merit.
The ANC called for the DA to fire Kohler Barnard from the party and Parliament if it was serious about ridding itself of the ghost of apartheid.
The ANC described the post on social media as reckless and demonstrated the deep-seated hatred Kohler Barnard has for black people and called her the advocate of apartheid.
Kohler Barnard distributed to her Facebook followers a post by a journalist blasting the ANC for the suspension of KwaZulu-Natal head of the Hawks Johan Booysen, and calling for the return of apartheid.
“And so the new head of the Hawks (Berning Ntlemeza)-found to be without integrity and dishonest (sic) by the court-has suspended ace detective Johan Booysen over a typing error. This is a bloody circus,” read the post.
“Please come back PW Botha-you were far more honest than any of these ANC rogues, and you provided far better services to the public-we had functioning education system, functioning health system,” added the post.
Spokesman for ANC Chief Whip Stone Sizani, Moloto Mothapo, described Kohler Barnard as racist for backing the post.
“It is in this vein that Kohler Barnard’s racist conduct, although outrageous and utterly repulsive, does not surprise us as racism and white supremacy form the core DNA of the DA,” he said.
He said the fact that the DA was associating itself with such an abhorrent system, which was described by the United Nations as a crime against humanity, showed it missed the vile apartheid system.
DA spokesperson Phumzile van Damme said they have referred Kohler Barnard’s case to their Federal Legal Commission, to institute disciplinary action against her.
She said the DA did not support such the comments.
Kohler Barnard herself has apologised for the comments and expressed her willingness to be subjected to her party’s disciplinary process.
Van Damme said they can never be associated with apartheid.
“PW Botha was a tyrant, who oversaw torture and murder of thousands of South Africans. That is why our predecessors, including Helen Suzman and Helen Zille, fought against the evil system of apartheid,” she said.
Political Bureau