Dear Residents
By now you would have heard the latest news in my unfortunate email saga. At the judgement hearing on Tuesday, between 1:00 and 3:0 pm, they found me guilty on 3 of the 4 charges.
Late Tuesday afternoon, the DA’s Provincial Exco endorsed the decision of the Disciplinary Committee to terminate my membership of the party.
They informed the media at about 5:00 pm on Tuesday, and I was only officially informed of the outcome at 9:04 am on Wednesday morning! They could not even inform me first – I had to hear it via the media!!
I would like to clarify five aspects that the media have ignored:
- When contacted by the Herald on Sunday, 9th June, I stated that “I was merely asked by the writer of the email to forward it on, as the Metro server had blocked it. I did so without actually reading through it, and have since deleted it as I found it divisive and insensitive. If I had read it first, I would not have forwarded it, as I get many such emails and I do not agree with the sentiments expressed in the email”.
- Up until today Athol Trollip has never spoken to me about the circumstances regarding this matter.
- I only sent the email to fellow DA councillors, and not the media or general public.
- At no stage was I charged, nor was evidence led, that I am or was racist.
- I did apologise to all the councillors to whom I had forwarded the email, and all witnesses for the party testified that they can continue to work with me.
One email received from a supporter yesterday said; “Maverics from other parties get away with murder, hate speech, incitement to violence; fraud and corruption, etc, with barely a slap on the wrist, while you get punished to the max for a relatively minor infringement and which is committed by thousands of people every day all over SA“.
I will be lodging an appeal and hopefully will be able to raise some funds to cover the costs.
I am most disappointed in how the DA has handled this situation and I will fight to keep my position as your Ward Councillor, regardless of the outcome of my appeal, as I love serving you and my community.
Kind Regards
Stanford Slabbert
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