/ 17 June 2013

DA suspends councillor over ‘very offensive and racist’ email

President Jacob Zuma arrived in Addis Ababa
President Jacob Zuma arrived in Addis Ababa

A Democratic Alliance councillor in the Eastern Cape has been suspended for circulating a racist email, the New Age reported on Monday.

Stanford Slabbert had reportedly sent an email saying President Jacob Zuma had more wives than brain cells.

The email also slammed the African National Congress for producing "dumb idiots who wait for handouts", according to the report.

The email said Zuma had led a country where a quarter of schoolgirls were HIV-positive because South Africans had "spread the disease more than anyone else in the world".

DA provincial leader Athol Trollip confirmed Slabbert's suspensions.

He said the email was "very offensive and racist" and said it had "contravened the DA constitution".

A disciplinary hearing would take place in July. – Sapa