Poet Lebo Mashile fires shots at Helen Zille

Poet Lebo Mashile has taken aim at Helen Zille calling the politician a racist. The star took to Twitter to speak out about how, at first, she genuinely believed that the Democratic Alliance’s federal council chairperson: “added value to political discourse in this country”, but due to the politician’s controversial Twitter history, she has since lost all respect for her.

The award-winning poet and television presenter did not mince her words when she shared her views on the former premier of the Western Cape, claiming Zille was “callous, racist, ignorant and unrepentant”.

It all started when a Twitter user asked whether Zille changed when she took to Twitter or was playing South Africans all along.

Mashile replied that the social media platform gave South Africans a better look into her personality.

“She has been sinking lower and lower into the worst parts of herself,” Mashile said in her reply.

At some point I genuinely believed that Helen Zille added value to political discourse in this country. She was someone I respected until Twitter. I’ve had her blocked for years. She is callous, racist, ignorant, & unrepentant. She has never been the woman she thinks she is.

— Lebogang Mashile (@lebomashile) November 29, 2020

I think both. It revealed her & since she has been sinking lower & lower into the worst parts of herself.

— Lebogang Mashile (@lebomashile) November 29, 2020

Singer Simphiwe Dana joined the conversation echoing Mashile’s thoughts but said that when she expressed the same views a while back about Zille, people thought she was a “crazy person”.

She said she was glad South Africans now saw the politician for who she was.

Mashile validated Dana’s comments, saying she remembered how people called the singer an extremist when she saw Zille for who she was.

Shame, and you did. I remember this. They said you were an extremist. https://t.co/5wkDzalYQ9

— Lebogang Mashile (@lebomashile) November 30, 2020

Last year, Zille sparked outrage several times for her controversial views. From defending her tweet about how colonialism was good for South Africans, to her “black privilege” comments on Twitter, the politician often rubbed people up the wrong way and trended for all the wrong reasons.

In April last year, she again defended her infamous colonialism tweet, two years after causing a buzz, where she insisted colonialism wasn’t only negative.

In May last year, she refused to apologise for her comments around “black privilege”, which she claimed meant looting and being re-elected.