Zille under fire over fresh colonialism tweets

The DA has written a letter to Western Cape Premier Helen Zille warning her to stop tweeting about colonialism or she will once again be charged for promoting the legacy of colonialism. A Mail & Guardian Online report notes that Zille ignited outrage on Twitter after she responded to citizens’ concerns over the Cape drought by praising colonialism for providing piped water. The DA's federal executive chairperson James Selfe confirmed that he had written to Zille last Thursday, but has yet to receive a response. If Zille fails to respond to the letter, he said, she will be charged, because her latest tweets on colonialism 'was an infraction on the use of social media'. If Zille is charged, it will be the second time in a year that she will be investigated for violating the DA’s social media policy, breaching her social media agreement with the party, and bringing the party into disrepute.

In another Twitter storm, the SA Policing Union (Sapu) wants Police Minister Fikile Mbalula to retract a tweet claiming two senior commanders in the force were ‘rotten cops’, says a TimesLIVE report. ‘The South African Policing Union calls upon Police Minister Fikile Mbalula to retract the statement he made on Twitter that he had removed the Mogale City Cluster Commander and Kagiso Police Station Commander because he cannot have rotten cops within the police service. We are giving Minister Mbalula 24 hours to retract this statement as it defames our members‚’ said union general secretary Oscar Skommere, adding if he failed to do so litigation would follow. ‘His continued irresponsible statements are causing a lot of harm within the police service. As a responsible union, we will never allow a situation where our dedicated and committed senior officers are humiliated by a Minister who is overlapping in his job.’ The union urged Gauteng Provincial Commissioner Deliwe de Lange to make a commitment that the officers would not be summarily removed from their posts.