Deputy home affairs minister Malusi Gigaba has distanced himself from a Facebook group that viciously attacked Western Cape premier Helen Zille, says his spokesman Byanada Mzoneli.
Yesterday, the Cape Argus reported Gigaba and African National Congress Youth League spokesman Floyd Shivambu appeared to be the administrators of a Facebook group that stated “Helen Zille - is still a venomous white racist adulterer". It included other insults, such as that she is a "brainwashed racist girl" who "commits coitus everywhere with her concubines cabinet in the W Cape" (sic).
Mzoneli says Gigaba often accepts invitations to various Facebook groups and, although he had agreed to join this one, he had not actually visited it. The group has since disappeared.
Neither Shivambu, nor Democratic Alliance home affairs spokesperson Juanita Terreblanche - who had called on Gigaba to explain himself or resign - were available for comment.
“The deputy minister had nothing to do with this group and, as far as he is concerned, it is a non-issue,” Mzoneli says.
He also points out that Gigaba has spearheaded the Department of Home Affairs anti-pornography campaign by virtue of the fact that the Film and Publications Board falls within its ambit.
“The deputy minister is, therefore, well aware of the damage that such statements can do. Pornography includes the making of inflammatory statements against women and children, who are often the most victimised in these situations,” Mzoneli says.
While the anti-Helen Zille group disappeared less than a day after it was reported in the Cape Argus, other anti-Jacob Zuma groups are still operating.
Social networking site Facebook has become especially popular among South Africans, with one million users from the country, or almost 20% of the country's entire Internet users, joining the site.
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