Gauteng leader John Moodey resigns from DA, citing ‘purge’ …

The Gauteng provincial leader of the DA, John Moodey, announced Wednesday morning that he was leaving the DA. An emotional Moodey said he no longer felt at home at a party where the constant threat of disciplinary action amounts to a ‘purge’ of those who dare to speak up.

“Today I announce that I am resigning as a member of the Democratic Alliance,” Gauteng provincial leader John Moodey told reporters gathered at his home in Johannesburg on Wednesday morning.

Moodey said he had become progressively more disenchanted with the party in recent years due to a number of factors: the overthrow of former party leader Mmusi Maimane, the failure to sanction the president of the federal council of the district attorney, Helen Zille, after controversial tweets, and the increasing use of disciplinary processes to “rid the district attorney of any of us who dare speak.”

The resignation comes days before the district attorney holds his political conference on the weekend.

Moodey has been a member of the DA for 22 years and a public representative of the party for two decades, including four consecutive terms as the provincial leader of Gauteng. During Wednesday’s briefing, he seemed at times on the verge of tears.

“Although I am indebted to the district attorney for the opportunity … the current attorney is not the one I joined 22 years ago,” he said.

Moodey described a party at which “trumped-up charges and the murder of characters and the spread of rumors have become common practice.”

Moodey said he is currently facing disciplinary action for “defending Mmusi [Maimane] in public, ”and that there were more charges pending against him.

He said that false disciplinary charges were used as a pretext to expel Maimane, and alleged that the same tactic was being used to suppress any defiance of the people who “have captured this party.” Among the alleged captors, he hinted, are Zille and the current acting leader of the party, John Steenhuisen.

Before his resignation from the DA, Moodey had entered the race to contest the DA’s leadership at the party’s electoral congress in October, opposing Steenhuisen and his colleague Mbali Ntuli.

“If I think I am a better leader [than Steenhuisen]That tells you how I feel about the interim leader, ”Moodey said Wednesday.

He repeatedly returned to the subject of Zille’s tweets, describing his claim that democratic South Africa has more racist laws than the dispensation under apartheid as a “flagrant populist distortion of facts.”

In the June 2020 tweet in question, Zille wrote: “Lol, there are more racist laws today than under apartheid. All racist laws are wrong. But permanent victimization is too precious to acknowledge this. “

Zille, Moodey charged, “is either deaf or ignorant or both.”

He said the prosecutor’s apparent acceptance of Zille’s offensive views was a sign that he could no longer be home at the party.

When asked if he would join former Johannesburg Mayor Herman Mashaba’s new Action SA party, Moodey rejected the idea. He said he was considering offers from both the private sector and NGOs.

Moodey added that he hoped the district attorney would “go after him” after his public resignation.

“When they come for me, I will expose more things,” he said.

But among party leaders, Moodey also suggested that the attitude might be, “It’s just another black man going.”

The district attorney quickly issued a statement after Moodey’s press conference, attributed to the party’s national spokesman, Refiloe Nt’sekhe, and Gauteng province president Mike Moriarty.

“The departure of Mr. Moodey is unfortunate and unnecessary,” the statement said.

“John has cited an alleged injustice through the charges he faces before our Federal Legal Commission. We confirm that due process was followed, as has always been done. We reject the allegation that these charges amount to a witch hunt against him.

“It is very unfortunate that he plays the card of the race to justify his decision to avoid due process.” DM