Can Barnard make a political comback?

Dianne Kohler Barnard in her latest picture posted on Facebook.

Dianne Kohler Barnard in her latest picture posted on Facebook.

Published Dec 27, 2015

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Cape Town - When DA MP Dianne Kohler Barnard takes her backbench seat in Parliament next year, it will be as deputy public works spokeswoman – a far cry from her previous position as shadow minister of police.

The enemies of this outspoken former radio journalist, who has a penchant for eye-catching fashion and hard-hitting encounters, will, however, still fight for her expulsion. They include the ANC, which has called for her to be fired, branding her an “apartheid advocate”.

This week Kohler Barnard won her appeal against her expulsion from the party that has consumed much of her working life for the past 15 years.

A shared Facebook comment containing a reference to apartheid president PW Botha, which she admits she had not fully read, was at the heart of the furore.

She says that when she realised her mistake, the comment was removed. But it was too late. A screen shot had been taken and broadcast to the rest of the world.

The error of judgment brought her career to an abrupt end.

As one commentator put it: “Dianne’s uncompromising stand on corruption and injustice means that she has made enemies – a lot of them. It has been a good day for them, a bad day for politics.”

While the jury is still out on whether Kohler Barnard can ever return to a leadership position, her career makes interesting reading.

Among the issues she took up:

l Jackie Selebi’s corruption case in 2010, which she said demonstrated that not all senior ANC politicians were above the law. She cited the “essential” role played by the Directorate of Special Operations (Scorpions), controversially disbanded the previous year for investigations of politicians.

Kohler Barnard said the fact that a guilty verdict had been delivered showed the Scorpions were the most effective investigative unit in the history of the country’s justice system.

“They were not afraid of investigating senior politicians in the ANC, largely because their independence offered them the ability to act without fear or favour in upholding the law. Selebi’s guilty verdict demonstrates exactly why the Scorpions were disbanded.”

l Earlier this year she caused an upset with the disclosure of an SMS sent to her by former national police commissioner Riah Phiyega saying she was “black, proud, capable and cannot be undone by a mere MP”.

In the SMS, confirmed by her superiors, Phiyega tells her: “Get it clear, you can take nothing from me and eat your heart out. I am not made by you and cannot be undone by you.”

Kohler Barnard said she found it appalling that the police commissioner would choose to send her a personal message when she (Kohler Barnard) was doing her job.

“And she is failing to do her job,” she added.

l Another issue that occupied much of Kohler Barnard’s political career was the huge rise in drug-related crimes in 10 years, which she told MPs was a reason specialised crime units needed to be re-established in South Africa.

Of the murder rate she said: “A year ago there were 17 068 murders. That is 47 murders a day. The increase revealed in the latest statistics means the murder rate is up to 17 805, which means 49 South Africans are murdered every day. This number of deaths is what one would expect from a country at war. This is catastrophic.”

It is little wonder, then, that her enemies would leap at any opportunity to unseat what they would see as a “meddlesome” politician – a white, blonde one at that.

Sunday Tribune

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