DA’s double standards

THE mess the DA is trying to extricate itself from in Cape Town has highlighted a key point: the party is not half as good as it claims to be. In trying to get on top of a steadily worsening water crisis in the Mother City, it has shown itself to be a party without a vision, without a plan… without a clue.

No amount of scurrying around can hide the fact that it was caught with its pants down.

And, in trying to put the blame entirely on Patricia de Lille, Cape Town’s executive mayor, it has shown itself to be a shameless manufacturer of sacrificial lambs.

True, De Lille did not cover herself in glory, but neither did others. For instance, what about Western Cape Premier Helen Zille?

She has been aware of the water scarcity problems in Cape Town for more than a decade – as both executive mayor of the city, and as premier of the province. What has she done about it? How about… the sweet sum of next to nothing? In the past three years of State of the Province addresses, Zille only spoke seriously about the problem in her 2017 address – and then the gist of what she said centred on a wish list.

This is not good enough – which brings us to a series of serious questions…

Why is Zille, who has once again landed in a “colonialism” Twitter storm, treated differently from De Lille?

This question needs to be asked until an answer is given.

Why is Zille allowed to get away with racist tweets? Why is she allowed to ignore warnings over her Twitter postings?

Why should De Lille be on the verge of being kicked out because of the way she managed the water crisis, but mainly because of her management style?

Is it because the DA is still run by old-style Progs and that Zille is their darling?

And how does Mmusi Maimane fit into this scenario? One thing is clear: Maimane has not adopted an even-handed approach in his dealings with Zille and De Lille.

On Tuesday, during his media briefing on the water situation in Cape Town, he refused to discuss Zille’s latest “colonialism” faux pas.

But he had no problem slamming the actions of De Lille.

We hope the voters of Cape Town took careful note of his obvious bias.