By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has suspended MP Renaldo Gouws after a video resurfaced online of him spewing violent racist language against black people.
The party has confirmed that he has been suspended, pending an internal investigation.
“The DA has established that the video, in which Renaldo Gouws uses execrable language, is in fact genuine and not a fake as initially suspected. The DA federal executive has therefore suspended Gouws with immediate effect while he faces disciplinary charges before the party’s federal legal commission,” the party said in a statement.
Gouws has been an MP for just over a week after being sworn in last week during the first sitting of parliament.
In the latest instalment that surfaced overnight, the MP asked what would happen if a white person advocated the same. He is heard saying: “Alright, so there’s a couple of things I want to say. Kill the f**ing k**irs, kill all the f**ing n*ggers.”
DA Federal chair Helen Zille said Gouws has been suspended from party activities.
“Such language is unjustifiable and unacceptable. I don’t see how such offensive language can be justified,” Zille said.
Gouws trended on social media on Monday after the first video emerged of him going on a rant about how white South Africans are subjected to reverse apartheid.
He apologised for the first video and said claims of him being racist were false, and that he has addressed the video clip before.
The former Nelson Mandela Bay councillor has been in the spotlight after he became an MP, with some people on social media posting a video he made in 2009 talking about “reverse apartheid”. This while decrying then president Jacob Zuma and then ANC youth leader Julius Malema singing songs (Dubul’ ibhunu) about killing people based on their race.
Gouws is no stranger to controversy, he boasts a YouTube channel with thousands of followers, a platform he used to speak about racial matters which often do not go unchallenged.
He declined media interviews while attending President Cyril Ramaphosa’s inauguration at the union buildings on Wednesday.
Following Gouws’ suspension the South African Human Rights Commission released a statement saying that it would be instituting proceedings at the Equality Court in Gqeberha against Gouws, for the alleged racial utterances relating to online media posts.
The human rights watchdog said that the video constitutes hate speech and/or harassment as contemplated in terms of sections 10 and 11 of the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act 2000 (PEPUDA or Equality Act).