Kaya News Reporter
Police minister Bheki Cele has slammed the DA’s election posters in Phoenix for citing further racial tensions.
The DA Phoenix posters, reads “The ANC called you racists”, “The DA calls you heroes”, and were put up on Monday.
Speaking in Mabopane at his imbizo, Cele said the posters were insensitive. “We’ve got 56 people that are appearing in different courts in KZN. To stand up and say those people are heroes! Mr Steenhusien, are they really heroes? Because those people that were killed were Africans?”
The messaging relates to the killing of 36 people in Phoenix during the looting and unrest in July.
There are now calls for the DA to remove the controversial posters with the party’s senior leaders in the province pushing their national leaders to concede that the posters send the wrong message.
According to TimesLive, DA provincial leader Francois Rogers did not sign off on the posters, and apparently only found out about them with the rest of SA.
During a meeting held on Wednesday, Dean Macpherson, provincial chair of the DA in KZN was said to be the only one who knew about the posters.
The party is concerned that they could lose 50% of black DA voters while at the same time cannot afford to lose 50% of the Indians who will vote for the DA.
Sources in the provincial management committee could not establish if Macpherson took the decision to go ahead with the posters alone.
DA mayoral candidate in Johannesburg, Dr Mpho Phalatse said the party may not have intended to cause harm with the posters but “should apologise, take the posters down and move on.”
However, DA party leader John Steenhuisen refuses to budge and insists the party will spread the same posters throughout KwaZulu-Natal.
Also read: Phumzile van Damme recalls the battles she fought in the DA



