DA quiet about suspension: ANC

The Democratic Alliance was very quiet about the suspension of its Eastern Cape councillor who circulated a racist e-mail, the ANC said.

"It has not issued even a single statement condemning [Stanford] Slabbert for his racially offensive remarks," Chief Whip Mathole Motshekga said in a statement.

"But this should not be a surprise, as the party did not condemn another racist insult made recently by its MEC in the Western Cape, Theuns Botha."

During a debate in the Western Cape legislature Botha had reportedly shouted "'n bobbejaan sê hoe" (a baboon says how) to ANC MPL Ntombizodwa Magwaza. Botha was asked to withdraw the remarks and apologise.

Motshekga demanded action be taken against Botha.

Stanford Slabbert was suspended from the DA after it was found he circulated an e-mail in which he reportedly wrote that President Jacob Zuma had more wives than brain cells.

According to the e-mail the African National Congress was producing "dumb idiots who wait for handouts" and that Zuma led a country where a quarter of schoolgirls were HIV-positive because South Africans "spread the disease more than anyone else in the world".

Motshekga said: "The DA's scant regard to the racism epidemic within its ranks reveals its lack of commitment to non-racialism and equality."

Eastern Cape DA leader Athol Trollip said on Tuesday it was not the party that made the comment, but an individual.

"He's [Slabbert] going to have to accept the consequences of his actions and he has really brought our party into disrepute. I've not made an apology. It wasn't the DA or myself [who made the comments] it was Stanford Slabbert."

Trollip said there were examples of how the ANC had allowed some of its members to make racist comments without taking action.

"They [the ANC] must live by their own mantra."

Trollip said a disciplinary hearing into Slabbert's conduct would take place soon. He said DA members like himself had worked their lives to build an image of non-racialism and the party would not accept discrimination.

ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu said Slabbert was guilty of arrogance towards blacks.

"The Democratic Alliance continues to treat black people like second-class citizens as demonstrated time and again in Cape Town and in Midvaal," Mthembu said in a statement.

"Had it not been exposed by the ANC during the presidency's budget vote debate last week, it like many others would have gone unnoticed, unpunished and acceptable within the DA," he said.