ZILLE: ‘MASHABA HAS ALWAYS BEEN TO THE RIGHT OF ME’

Helen Zille was speaking on 702 on Monday while Herman Mashaba was announcing his departure from the party, citing that the DA was no longer the same party he joined in 2014.

Helen Zille was announced as the DA's new Federal Council chairperson on 20 October 2019. Picture: Sethembiso Zulu/EWN.

Mihlali Ntsabo
Eyewitness News

JOHANNESBURG – Newly appointed Democratic Alliance (DA) Federal Council chairperson Helen Zille said outgoing Johannesburg Mayor Herman Mashaba was free to do whatever he liked.

Zille was speaking on 702 on Monday while Mashaba was announcing his resignation from the party, saying the DA was no longer the same party he joined in 2014.

Mashaba’s resignation came after the DA announced on Sunday that Zille would now take over from James Selfe as the party’s Federal Council chair; Selfe held the position for 19 years.

Last week, in an interview on 702 with Aubrey Masango, ahead of the Fedex meeting, Mashaba said he would resign if the party was to be taken over by what he called right-wing elements.

Asked on Monday what she made of Mashaba’s comment, Zille said while he was “making many billions out of hair straighteners and things”, he knew very well that she was hiding uMkhonto We Sizwe operatives in her house.

She said: “Herman was the chairman of the Free Market Foundation and they once held a congress in Orania [in the Northern Cape]. So, that would be very weird to me because I would never want to go to Orania and hold a congress in Orania.”

Zille further said Mashaba was “to the right” of her.

“…Very significantly to the right of me. When I was one of the people who helped recruit Herman to the DA… I said to my colleagues, he’s far to the right of us,” Zille said, again citing that Mashaba was the chairman of the Free Market Foundation.

She said she didn’t know how Mashaba came up with his right-wing element claims about her.