Maimane denies he approved Zille article

DA party leader Mmusi Maimane has denied claims by his predecessor Helen Zille‚ that a recent Sunday Times article written by her was approved by his office.

Maimane told The Times that Zille wrote in her own capacity‚ “and not in the name of the DA“.

“Helen’s article in the Sunday Times was neither approved or agreed with‚” he said.

Earlier on Sunday Zille dismissed an assertion she had gone “rogue“‚ charging that articles written by her within the past fortnight were cleared by Maimane.

Zille tweeted that articles she had written which appeared in the Sunday Times and on the Daily Maverick website‚ had gone to Maimane’s office for “vetting”.

“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”.

Maimane said that the article published in the Daily Maverick was approved because the subject matter concerned the DA Student Organisation.

Earlier 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.

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.

- TMG Digital