KNYSNA NEWS & VIDEO - At Fate of the Nation, one of the premier Knysna Literary Festival events being held today, Helen Zille, premier of the Western Cape, defended her tweet about colonialism she made yesterday.
Yesterday, while waiting to board a plane to Cape Town on her way to the Knysna Literary Festival, after spending a week in Singapore and Japan to strengthen tourism and investment relations, the former DA leader tweeted:
“For those claiming legacy of colonialism was only negative, think of our independent judiciary, transport infrastructure, piped water, etc.”
A few minutes later, she tweeted again: “Would we have had a transition into specialised health care and medication without colonial influence? Just be honest, please.”
An hour later Zille apologised for the tweets, but first said: “Getting on to an aeroplane now and won’t get on to the wi-fi so that I can cut off those who think every aspect of colonial legacy was bad.”
Later Zille said: “I apologise unreservedly for a tweet that may have come across as a defence of colonialism. It was not.”
She told the audience she never meant to defend colonialism, but purely saw how Singapore’s reaction to overcoming colonialism was one of using aspects left by a colonial legacy to improve their country.
The former DA leader has been labelled a “cold-hearted racist” by the EFF for claiming in a tweet that colonialism had been beneficial to those subjected to the system.
Following a visit to Singapore, where she was on an official visitor, Zille tweeted that not everything about colonialism had been bad for South Africa.
The political climate in South Africa is to be discussed in Knysna today during the premier event, The Fate of the Nation, being held at the Conrad Pezula and Spa.
JJ Tabane author of Let’s Talk Frankly chats to Helen Zille and Fred Khumalo author of #Zuptas must fall.
While the three speakers were to discuss the fate of South Africa, political realignment, corruption and the judiciary amongst other topics, Zille’s tweet of yesterday sparked off the debate.
Watch videos below.
ARTICLE & VIDEOS: STEFAN GOOSEN, KNYSNA-PLETT HERALD JOURNALIST
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