Port Elizabeth - The DA’s slick PR machine almost ground to a halt on Saturday after veteran journalist and friend of the party’s outgoing leader, Allister Sparks, likened Helen Zille to the widely despised chief architect of apartheid, Hendrik Verwoerd.
Sparks’s admiration for the father of grand apartheid will embarrass a party positioning itself as a political home for all, including millions of blacks whose lives were irreparably harmed by Verwoerd’s race-driven social engineering.
In his tribute to Zille, who worked as a journalist for Sparks in the 1970s, the elderly former editor said: “I’ve been working as journalist in this country for 64 years… from the era of DF Malan to that of Jacob Zuma.
“In the course of (this), I’ve encountered some really smart politicians – Harry Lawrence… Margaret Ballinger, Helen Suzman, Zach de Beer, Frederik van Zyl Slabbert, Marais Steyn, Japie Basson, and, yes, Hendrik Verwoerd. But, after all those years, I have to say, objectively viewed (and) setting aside my personal friendship, I rate Helen Zille as the smartest political tactician of all.”
Sparks’s comment immediately caused an eruption of outrage on social media, where many drew comparisons with the views of dismissed Wits SRC president Mcebo Dlamini, who claimed on social media in recent weeks that he “liked” Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.
Most commentators thought Sparks’s comments soured the tone of the DA’s federal congress, the first at which the party is expected to elect a black leader. The DA is attempting to polish its image, particularly among black voters, who view the party as overwhelmingly white and unsympathetic to the black experience of racism.
Eastern Cape lecturer and former journalist Jeff Moloi wrote on Facebook: “Gotta be a big oopsie for the DA, at a conference where they’re trying to go black.”
Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula was less kind: “The ugly face of white liberalism show its face at DA Congress. Verwoerd lauded as a hero and a smart president by Alistair (sic) Sparks.”
National Union of Metalworkers of SA spokesman Castro Ngobese said: “Racists know how to defend each other. Am not suprised by those defending Alister (sic) Sparks. #DACongress.”
Journalist Benjamin Fogel said: “Damn I thought Alastair (sic) Sparks was washed when he was promoting (Peruvian economist, Hernando) De Soto as some sort of guru 10 years too late but that speech he just gave at the DA hubris orgy in PE was trash comparing Zille to Verwoerd… SMH.”
Tweleb,@Sentletse said: “Alistar (sic) Sparks tells #DACongress that Hendrik Verwoerd was ‘a smart politician’. They didn’t boo. They applauded.”
John Graham @Housecheckjohn said Sparks’s statement was an embarrassment for all in the DA, black and white.
The party was scrambling to distance itself from Sparks on Saturday, but refused to condemn his comments. Spokesman Marius Redelinghuys said the party would not comment on Sparks’s speech.
“We’re not getting involved. He does not represent the DA. He was speaking in his personal capacity on Helen. Questions should be addressed to Allister.”
Sparks’s careless comments will be particularly problematic for Zille, the person he was attempting to honour.
Zille’s parents settled in South Africa after escaping Nazi persecution in the 1930s.
Verwoerd’s pro-Nazi stance was a matter of controversy even in conservative, apartheid-era South Africa. He vehemently opposed the policy of allowing Jews persecuted by the Nazis to settle in South Africa. He also opposed South Africa’s participation on the side of the Allies in World War II, and used Nazi Germany as the template for apartheid South Africa.
Zille said Sparks was talking about the politicians he had covered as a reporter.
“He was talking about the politicians he had covered in his life, and assessing their capacity as politicians,” she told The Sunday Independent.
“That did not mean in any way that he was expressing any admiration whatsoever.
“He was the most determined opponent of apartheid.
“He ran the most anti-apartheid paper in South Africa, and that took great courage, for many years. He exposed apartheid again and again.
“To take a line out of a speech and completely distort it, as if to manufacture outrage on the basis of an alleged expression of admiration, which would be totally wrong in the context of the speech, is trying to find some way of destroying the total spirit of this congress.
“I am very used to that from some journalists and I feel very sorry it’s happened in this way.”
Political Bureau