Voices
Zille didn’t say colonialism was positive
The article on the future of the Democratic Alliance by Steven Gruzd in the 1 November edition of the SA Jewish Report is excellent, but it must be pointed out that Helen Zille never said that colonialism was positive. What she did say was “its legacy is not only negative”. It must be understood that this is a big difference to what was written in the article. We must all remember that we are all entitled to our own opinion, but not our own facts.
Michael Bagraim, Deputy shadow minister for employment and labour
Singapore used what was left behind by the colonial power to build a country which is enormously functional and solvent.
In chatting to Helen Zille about the article, she said it was a sensible analysis but for the factual error. She also pointed out that if you think about the Rugby World Cup final, we took on the former colonial power at its own game, and beat them. We look forward to South Africa growing from strength to strength using the infrastructure left behind by the incredibly negative former masters.