Colonialism wasn’t all bad – oh wait, it was, my bad – Zille

It’s been three months since Helen Zille last set Twitter aflame with some borderline racist comment, so clearly we were overdue for another off-colour tweet from the Western Cape premier.

On Thursday morning Zille delivered with this gem, implying that the only way to advance technologically is by (a) being European or (b) being colonised by Europeans.

She didn’t even stop there.

And then it was on.

via GIPHY

The local Twittersphere promptly lost its mind.

Things got taken to the next level when someone called into presenter Eusebius McKaiser’s Radio 702 talk show to support both Zille and colonialism. Just to spice things up, he threw in some homophobic comments while he was there too.

It wasn’t long before the Democratic Alliance’s Mmusi Maimane and Phumzile Van Damme stepped in to do some damage control.

People quickly pointed out that neither Maimane nor Van Damme had bothered to tag Zille in their tweets.


Meanwhile, Zille low-key apologised.

Which really didn’t fool anybody.

Maimane later spoke on McKaiser’s show, and said that the matter has been referred to the DA’s disciplinary structures.

So, any bets on how long it’ll be before Zille’s next Twitterbomb?

Featured image by Ihsaan Haffejee