BusinessDay.gif DA's Dalindyebo Disgrace and Kohler Barnard Disgrace Gareth Van Onselen, Business Day, Johannesburg, 5 October 2015 The second judgment against AbaThembu king Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo will come as something of a relief to the Democratic Alliance (DA) leadership. Expediency got them into this mess and, in delivering its verdict, the Supreme Court of Appeal gave the party an equally expedient way out of it. Thus, under the sanctimonious guise of "principle", the party's leadership last week tried to weasel itself out of its association with a convicted kidnapper, arsonist and thug, with a reluctant smile and a shrug of the shoulders. The entire affair is an indictment of the DA and, looking back, it is no surprise the details reveal little more than craven self-interest. One aspect of the party's flirtation with Dalindyebo never discussed was how his victims felt. He torched people's homes, beat others until they bled, kidnapped a child, and, amid all this violence, someone died, although the king himself was excused of that particular crime. Read the <http://www.politicsweb.co.za/documents/the-state-vs-king-dalindyebo-the-sca -judgment> latest judgment for the full horror, it is replete with much devastating detail; or the graphic facts laid out in his <https://insidepoliticsdotme.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/dalindyebosentence. pdf> original sentence. Alternatively, search through all the DA's tortuous communication on the subject, including an excruciatingly <https://www.da.org.za/2013/07/sa-today-the-king-and-i/> self-serving newsletter from then leader Helen Zille trying to justify it all, for any reference to those maimed and beaten. You will search in vain. Were these people visited by the party? Was there an attempt to explain the decision to them? Did the party rally, in any shape or form, to their aid in the name of justice? Was there one single, solitary statement asking for no more than their understanding? No. Not a thing. The DA, that great protector of the weak and marginalised, the first to declare the African National Congress (ANC) callous and detached, did not give two hoots about the victims. They wanted that signature on a membership form. And so it was they would dispatch the party's local dogsbody, Athol Trollip, a great facilitator of floor-crossers in his own right, to do the deed. Having secured the bloody mark, Trollip said," This is a very important day in the history of the DA.. I am very proud to welcome the king into the DA." "Very proud", no less. What an absolute, total and utter disgrace. For shame on the party. Zille set out who was broadly responsible for signing Dalindyebo up as a member. At the time she wrote, "Athol Trollip, the DA's Eastern Cape leader, and I had an in-depth conversation about the king's announcement/invitation. We decided that Athol would go to Bumbane and give the king a chance to reconsider his decision once he was fully aware of the implications of joining the DA." But it was Trollip himself who made the final call. In an <http://www.pod702.co.za/Eyewitnessnews/video/130716dalindyebo.mp4> interview Trollip said, ". I brought my membership book, I didn't expect to sign him up today, there were some issues I wanted to speak to him about and to discuss about our values, and he said, no, he wanted to sign up and I thought it was important.." Why was it important? Zille says in her newsletter that "we had two choices: to publicly accept him, or publicly reject him". The party has been very clear about the kinds of people it doesn't want in the party on numerous occasions. "The DA is not a party for racists. It is not a party for sexists, xenophobes or homophobes," said Zille in 2012. But for convicted criminals? Trollip says in a <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwuuO8P9iZQ> later interview about Dalindyebo, ". we must also understand that even criminals who are in jail are allowed to vote..." By the way, Dalindyebo is a homophobe too. He has said, under his watch, "no man will be allowed to sleep with another man in my state". But the DA had nothing to say about that either. As the DA has not sent a delegation to try to sign up any other high-profile criminals there was something particular about this king. The answer is in his title. Again and again, Trollip said in interviews Dalindyebo had "broken a mould"; that he demonstrated, "even kings can alienate themselves from the governing party of the day". But Dalindyebo's tyrannical influence on his people is now well documented in various judgments. The Supreme Court of Appeal said, "We agree fully with the characterisation by the court below of the manner in which the king ruled." For the record, that court had, "presented a picture of the appellant as a king who ruled as a merciless despot". So really, what Trollip was saying was that his party was in favour of despots being free of political hegemony. As for the people they ruled over, they would hopefully continue to follow the king's lead: they would vote DA, not ANC. As the DA said at the time, "The king is influential in his region, and his words do carry great weight with the headmen and residents who live in the region." The DA could get tyranny to work in its favour for a change. As it turned out, it had little effect. The DA's growth in that area has generally hovered around the 1% mark since 2011. And what of all this nonsense, to paraphrase Trollip, about "respecting the king's right of appeal"? The fact is, when he signed up he was a convicted criminal. After the Supreme Court of Appeal ruled, he was still a convicted criminal. What changed? Why is his membership being revoked now? In fact, the king says he intends to appeal again, this time to the Constitutional Court. Does the DA not respect that right? And, if he wins there on some technicality, will the party reinstate his membership? Of course, the DA grants no such leniency to ANC members convicted of a crime. Usually it is first out of the blocks to call for a suspension or firing simply on the basis that charges are laid. Actually, the DA wants various people fired just for maladministration or incompetence, never mind any legal transgression. But Trollip actually had the gall to compare Dalindyebo to President Jacob Zuma: "With regards to his charges and sentences against him, it is important to know and to state that the king went to court to answer the charges against him, was sentenced, is now utilising his judicial and constitutional right to challenge the sentence in the court of appeal, unlike the president of the country, who has 600 charges against him, who says he wants his day in court, has spent tens of millions of rand of taxpayers' money to stay out of court and even manipulated the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA)." Much of the Supreme Court of Appeal judgment focuses on Dalindyebo's appalling disdain for the justice system. Of the inordinate amount of time the appeal took, the judgment reads, "If not all of that delay was caused by the appellant being obstructive and employing dubious means to thwart the administration of justice, including the intimidation of complainants." At one point it reads, ". he was not averse to being economical with the truth". The king committed his crimes in 1996. He was first sentenced to 15 years in prison by the Eastern Cape High Court in 2009. In December last year the NPA was still unable to say why he was not in jail. Last week the council of traditional leaders called on a chief to go to jail in his place. There is no difference between Zuma's and Dalindyebo's attitude to the justice system. Only, Dalindyebo was willing to represent the DA. But that is neither here nor there. Trollip seemed to be saying that just because he was sentenced, he should be rewarded with membership - because he faced the music, never mind the what the lyrics said. By that logic, if the president is sentenced, presumably the DA would have respect for him if he again stood for public office? This is what expediency does to logic, it turns it into charade, and Trollip waved his flag of incoherence with so much smugness. Here is another consideration: there can be no doubt, the whole Dalindyebo affair has been a blight on the DA's reputation. The king has generated so many negative headlines over the past two years it is impossible to document them all. Each one, inevitably, mentions the DA. The damage the king has done to the DA's reputation is acute. The fact that you can literally say the DA leadership willingly and with pride signed up a convicted criminal, without fear of contradiction, says it all. In the <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwuuO8P9iZQ> final exchange of an interview back in 2013, Trollip was asked, "Can you put it on record that you don't believe that (in) joining the DA, that King Dalindyebo will tarnish the image of the DA, you don't believe that whatsoever?" Trollip replied curtly: "Well, I wouldn't have signed him up if I did." Political judgment doesn't get worse than that. The party currently is falling over itself to discipline Dianne Kohler Barnard for her social media debacle. She has, the party argues, brought the organisation's name into disrepute. She certainly has. But in Dalindyebo you have an absolute and complete rubbishing of the DA's brand for two years - sustained, repeated and serious damage on a grand scale. And as the Sunday Times reported this weekend, he wasted no time turning on the DA after his membership was revoked. All for little reward, not that it matters. Will anyone bring charges against Zille or Trollip for this total aberration? Not a chance. There are different rules for different people in the DA. The matter is further complicated by the line-toeing attitude of leader Mmusi Maimane at the time (he was then national spokesperson), who not only defended the prospect of Dalindyebo being elected to public office, but went so far as to describe the occasion as "the symbolism of our politics" (sic). One wonders, what exactly is it a symbol of now? Maimane won't move a muscle to examine this whole affair in any formally critical way; he was elected joined at the hip to Trollip. "I find it ironic," Trollip said, "that yesterday he was a member of the ANC and the ANC tolerated all these issues we are talking about." Ironic indeed, but not for the reasons Trollip thought. The DA's relationship with Dalindyebo was a moment of pure and unadulterated ANC-like behaviour from beginning to end. It wooed and signed up a criminal, with callous disregard for his victims; it tried to get a tyrant to work for it, instead of the ANC, by using hereditary power to serve its own ends; it contradicted its own values and principles, using tortuous language and logic to make nonsense of facts and hard evidence and, at the end of the day, the people responsible will escape any consequences because they occupy positions of power and influence. And the DA will not concede a thing. Trollip said at the time he was "very proud". Is he now ashamed? No, you can be sure he is prouder than ever; a good solider, marching in time to an expedient drumbeat. Nothing reveals a party's authentic nature better than the pursuit of power. In the King Dalinyebo affair, the DA's basest instincts were on display and to behold. They were ugly indeed. Organisations most reveal their values by what they say no to. The DA could not say no to a king and tyrant. This says more than "Vision 2029" ever could. From: <http://www.bdlive.co.za/opinion/columnists/2015/10/05/the-das-anc-moment> http://www.bdlive.co.za/opinion/columnists/2015/10/05/the-das-anc-moment -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . 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