'What rogue?’ asks Zille – says her articles were cleared by Maimane

Former Democratic Alliance leader and current Western Cape Premier Helen Zille has dismissed an assertion that she has gone “rogue”‚ charging that  recent articles written by her were cleared by incumbent party leader Mmusi Maimane.

On Sunday Zille tweeted that articles she had written which appeared in the Sunday Times and on the Daily Maverick website last week‚ had gone to Maimane’s office for “vetting”‚ but the DA would not confirm this.

“For the record I submitted last week’s STimes and DMaverick articles to @MmusiMaimane ‘s office for vetting before publication. What rogue?” Zille said in her tweet.

She was responding to Business Day and Financial Mail Editor in Chief Peter Bruce‚ who wrote in his column in the Sunday Times that Zille had “gone rogue” and would “write and say what she wants now that she’s been charged by the party”.

Spokesman for the DA Mabine Seabe‚ said that he was “not aware of the articles coming through our office”‚ and referred TimesLIVE to party chief of Jordan Hill Lewis‚ who remained coy when questioned over Maimane’S

knowledge of Zille’s recent articles.

“The official party line is that there is no comment‚” Hill-Lewis said.

“There is an ongoing disciplinary process taking place internally and we would like to keep it inside that process.”

Last month the DA’s federal executive decided to charge Zille‚ after it received a report on an investigation into her tweets‚ in which she said colonialism was not entirely bad.

Zille was publicly rebuked for her tweets by Maimane‚ who said they were not the views of the DA.

Tiso Black Star Group Digital/TimesLIVE