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Former NMB councillor Renaldo Gouws suspended by the public prosecutor’s office over racist video

Renaldo Gouws.

Photo: X/ Mzilikazi wa Afrika

Renaldo Gouws of the Democratic Alliance (DA) has been suspended with immediate effect as he faces disciplinary proceedings before the party’s Federal Legal Affairs Commission.

His suspension came after old videos resurfaced showing him making derogatory remarks.

Gouws, a former councillor for Nelson Mandela Bay’s Second District, was sworn in as a member of parliament on 14 June.

Richard Newton, communications director for the Public Prosecution Service, said: “The Public Prosecution Service has determined that the video in which Renaldo Gouws uses vile language is genuine and not a fake, as initially suspected.”

In a video that recently resurfaced on social media, Gouws can be heard and seen claiming that white South Africans are living in a “reverse apartheid.”

“Today whites are beaten, whites are killed, whites are discriminated against,” Gouws said in the video.

He continued to insist that whites were discriminated against in South Africa, adding: “Call me a fucking racist if you want.”

Shortly afterwards, on 16 June, a petition was launched calling for Gouws’ removal from parliament.

In a second 15-second video that has resurfaced, Gouws can be seen and heard making racist and violent remarks.

In response to the videos, Gouws publicly apologized to X, denied that he had been racist and stated that the videos were recorded when he was “young and still a student.”

He said he was responding to comments by “former President Zuma and then youth leader Malema, who sang songs about killing people because of their race.”

“I reject all allegations of racism or racism. However, I see how my message was distorted by the way it was delivered and I take full responsibility for the actions of my younger, immature self,” Gouws concluded.