By Enyichukwu Enemanna
A South African member of Parliament has been suspended by his party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), over violent racist language he made in the past.
Renaldo Gouws’ series of old clips resurfaced online, which depicted him of spewing violent racist utterances against black people.
The lawmaker had initially denounced the videos, alleging that one of them was doctored.
In contrary view however, his party in a statement on Thursday said it was “genuine and not a fake”.
In the video, Gouws who was sworn into parliament last week, uses a local slur typically reserved for Black Africans repeatedly along with the n-word, and calls for black people to be killed.
This comes at a time when the country’s President, Cyril Ramaphosa, is forming a new coalition government with the DA to enable him retain power after his party, ANC lost majority in the parliament.
Ramaphosa who was inaugurated for the second term in office on Wednesday has agreed to share ministerial slots between his African National Congress (ANC) and the DA, along with three smaller parties who made up the coalition.
Mr. Gouws will face “disciplinary charges”, DA has vowed.
Earlier this week, another old video clip re-emerged, in which Mr Gouws makes racially-charged remarks.
In the video he implied that white people were subject to reverse apartheid.
He said: “If Africa had to disappear off the face of the earth, no one would [expletive] notice”.
More than 40,000 people have signed an online petition calling for his removal as an MP.
On Monday, after the first clip came out, the 41-year-old claimed he wasn’t racist and apologised on X, saying he had spoken in a “crass” and “hostile” way.
“I refute any claims of racism or being a racist. I can however see how my message was distorted in the way it was delivered by me and I take full responsibility for the actions of my younger and immature self,” he said.
