South Africa Johannesburg DA tv advert 11 April 2024. DA federal leader John Steenhuisen travels to Orange Grove to launch the new DA elections TV advert. The group filled up Victory theatre where premier candidate Solly Msimanga also spoke. Picture: Timothy Bernard / Independent Newspapers.
The lawyer that has dragged the DA to court, on an urgent basis, over its controversial advertisement portraying the burning of the South Africa flag has slapped back at the party with a replying affidavit.
This after the DA on Monday filed their answering affidavit to the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, where lawyer Zuko Madikane has applied to the court seeking for the advert to be found unconstitutional and offensive.
In his urgent application on the 12th this month, Madikane is seeking for the court to declare the DA to be in gross violation of sections 10(1) and 7 of the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act 4 of 2000.
The DA on Monday through its marketing director, Aimee Franklin-D’Aguiar, filed their reply to the court arguing that Madikane’s application is not urgent.
She asserted that Madikane’s complaint was that the political advert was racist.
“Even if that is so, which I deny in the strongest terms, Mr Madikane can obtain relief in the ordinary course … Any effect that the advert may have on voters ahead of the elections has already occurred ... any agency is entirely self-created and the timelines of this application are unreasonable,” the papers read.
Replying to the DA in his replying affidavit to the court yesterday, Madikane said the application was unquestionably urgent.
“According to the DA, it is suggested that I must accept the hate speech and discrimination based on what they refer to as political tolerance? I find the suggestion more offensive considering where we come from as a country.
“The DA is selective with the truth , it is superfluous to even think that the court may believe, let alone me or the greater public that the advert was not intended to insinuate that black people will be burning the country, if they would vote either the ANC, EFF or the uMkhonto weSizwe Party into government in the upcoming elections,” the affidavit read in part.
Madikane said he was instituting this action “in my own capacity as a South African citizen”.
Speaking to The Star, Madikane took a swipe at the DA’s leadership after the party’s Helen Zille accused him of being a bogus lawyer on national TV yesterday morning.
“The DA has been ignorant. Instead of dealing with the case at hand, they have been trying to discredit me … I want the Constitution to propagate that no one should incite violence,” he said.
He said it didn’t matter whether he was a lawyer or not but wanted to hold the party accountable.
Madikane said that he had an LLB degree from Unisa, however, that was not the case at hand.
The DA had not responded to questions from The Star at the time of going to print.
However, despite their assertions that Madikane was a “bogus” lawyer, they filed their answering affidavit on Monday with the two parties to face-off in court on Thursday.
Judge Holland Muter will preside over the case sitting on Thursday in Pretoria.
The Star understands that the case was moved from Wednesday to Thursday so that the court could familiarise itself with all the papers before it.
The Star
mashudu.sadike@inl.co.za