ON THE WATER
NEELS BLOM: Helen Zille made a mistake and DA intolerance has made it worse
The perverse truth about the DA running Helen Zille out of town over her tweets about colonialism is that in its collective mind, it had no choice. The best Zille can do is to let the matter go, to abandon the fight against her suspension and to work towards advancing the liberal cause. This is not to say the DA’s federal executive did the just thing when it suspended Zille, but it does mean it understands well enough that it needs to win votes, even the votes of people who do not understand the difference between an opinion and party policy. Votes are votes, yes? And then there’s Zille. What was she thinking? Was she thinking at all? It was a long flight. Airports are hell and ORT is the worst. Whatever. The fact is, the woman made a mistake. She apologised. Of course, she didn’t mean it. We know this because she said so, but she is not believed. She is not believed by the great unwashed and not by the squeaky-clean DA. It is, after all, the party she built and its leader-turned-ba...
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