The ANC Youth League has expressed shock at DA leader Helen Zille’s attack on two journalists on Twitter, the league said on Tuesday.
[full]”We cannot imagine how a premier, a mother and politically ambitious South African could have the indecency to vilify and insult two journalists by name publicly on twitter,” ANCYL spokesman Dr Bandile Masuku said.
“She has shown in absolute terms her rejection of independent media and their right to cover news fearlessly.”
Masuku said Zille attacked City Press journalist Carien du Plessis and Independent Newspapers reporter Shanti Aboobaker on Twitter.
According to Masuku, Zille tweeted: “She (Carien) is so terrified that she will be damned by her own complexion that she has to bend over to prove her political correctness.”
Masuku added: “This showed that if you write anything critical of her party, or her, she will stoop so low as to accuse you of being a self-hating white.”
Masuku said the DA had abused Du Plessis by attacking her race, identity, trade and credibility.
Masuku said Aboobaker wrote about the DA being funded by businessmen who earned their money through oppressing the people of Palestine.
Aboobaker also wrote about Zille’s intention to resign from DA leadership in 2015, he said.
“It seems the DA is drowning and as it drowns this DA boss will scream profanities. This blatant defamation is behavior one would expect from an immature child,” Masuku said.[/full]