Barnard has undone DA’s good work

MP Dianne Kohler Barnard has publicly apologised for sharing a post that supported apartheid-era president PW Botha. File picture: Willem Law

MP Dianne Kohler Barnard has publicly apologised for sharing a post that supported apartheid-era president PW Botha. File picture: Willem Law

Published Oct 10, 2015

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When the SANDF denied in April 2013 that it had granted permission to any private people to land at Waterkloof Air Base, the DA’s Dianne Kohler Barnard was among the first to lash out.

As the party’s then-spokeswoman on police, she said in an interview: “The fact that the defence force knew nothing about it means that it’s being done on the QT. And that cannot be allowed.

“It cannot be that the defence force does not know who is being flown in and out of their own bases. It is the most appalling situation. How can they not know?”

Certainly, the incident involving the influential Gupta family’s wedding party was of a different scale to that now involving Kohler Barnard herself. But her reposting on Facebook of a glorification of PW Botha has enormous ramifications for her party. It appears she might have been as guilty as the SANDF in claiming she knew nothing.

Kohler Barnard said in her defence that she hadn’t looked properly to what she was reposting and there are only two responses to that. It was racism or incompetence that led to her giving the thumbs up to journalist Paul Kirk’s post, which read: “Please come back PW Botha – you were far more honest than any of these ANC rogues, and you provided a far better service to the public. We had a functioning education system, functioning health system, and the police did not murder miners on behalf of government toadies as they do now.”

That Kirk’s post related to the debatable credentials of newly appointed Hawks head Berning Ntlemeza is incidental. There’s no in-between on his words or the decision made by Kohler Barnard to pass them on, with many South Africans not buying her plea of dissonance.

Botha said in his catastrophic Rubicon address in August 1985, a mere 30 years ago, that he was “not prepared to lead white South Africans and other minority groups on a road to abdication and suicide”.

“Destroy white South Africa and our influence,” he told the National Party congress in Durban, “and this country will drift into faction, strife, chaos and poverty.”

It seems all too obvious to point out that the only people benefiting from the apartheid regime’s education and health system under Botha and his predecessors were whites, and that, indeed, the regime was murdering, torturing, detaining, assaulting and causing the disappearance of black South Africans and other enemies of the state.

Let’s not forget that Chase Manhattan Bank followed the French government’s withdrawal of its ambassador and suspension of new investments while Botha was still in power in 1985. South Africa’s maturing loans were called in and borrowing facilities terminated. That was the beginning of the end. Enough was enough.

As sanctions deepened, other international banks did the same, forcing South Africa to default, leading to a devastated currency and a rout on the markets. After Botha’s speech, the US Congress passed its groundbreaking Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act which banned new investment and loans. Commodities were crippled and even landing rights were withdrawn.

So, no excuses then for Kohler Barnard, unless she doesn’t know her history. But had she been an independently outspoken relic of the past, she could have been buried like so much apartheid detritus. Instead, she created a formidable twist in the DA’s new plot.

In terms of social media alone, the party has taken a hammering through Kohler Barnard’s reposting. This was against the backdrop of significant admiration for it for how well and how cleverly it used social media in fighting last year’s elections.

Strategy Worx’s Online Presence Effectiveness Survey found that, if the national election had been conducted online, the DA would have topped the polls with its “comprehensive presence”.

Kohler Barnard also subverted what had been a particularly good week for the DA in terms of its strategy – that of October 1, which is when her reposting finally surfaced to full public gaze.

Developing its stated programme of fighting corruption and resetting its bar under Mmusi Maimane, the party had laid charges against the ANC’s investment arm, Chancellor House, after allegations that Japanese conglomerate Hitachi had made “improper” payments during an Eskom tender process.

The Cape Town High Court that week also ruled against Sanral on Western Cape e-tolls after the DA-led City of Cape Town said the move was unlawful.

Then came its blow of October 1, six weeks after Kohler Barnard had received an emotional SMS from national police commissioner General Riah Phiyega, who wrote: “I am black, proud, capable & get it clear U can take nothing from me eat your heart out.”

The response to Phiyega on that occasion was savage on social media, but that has rapidly turned around on Kohler Barnard, who at first seemed to believe her “unreserved apology” for sharing Kirk’s post was sufficient.

@tsholomash pointed out that the MP’s defence that she “had erased it immediately” was untrue. The tweep wrote that “you posted a week or so ago”.

Kohler Barnard responded that it had indeed been shared two weeks before, but she had “a few hours later… trashed it”.

Other tweeps then joined the fray, with @JacquiThePoet saying: “You advocate for bring a racist murderer back who oversaw the murder, rape & brutalisation of black people? You wanna meet with me? Name the time and place.”

Kohler Barnard might not have benefited through her supporters, who included journalist David Bullard @lunchout2, who tweeted: “Well done Dianne… you’ve given all these sad little libtards something to be ‘outraged’ about. It’s what they all live for.” He was joined by @SaffaZimbo, who wrote: “Fcking self loathing white SA liberals, most of whom live overseas or in DA run Cape Town. My absolute worst.”

This was all fodder for some of those who might have been vacillating over the DA, their views probably encapsulated by @JRLegodi, who tweeted: “You got caught period! I always believed that DA was a future party to lead this country but you changed my mind.”

Weekend Argus

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