DA says Gouws may have slipped through the cracks during vetting process

JOHANNESBURG - The Democratic Alliance (DA) has admitted that suspended member, Renaldo Gouws, may have slipped through the cracks during their vetting process. 

This is despite Gouws having been very active on YouTube since the early 2000s. 

Gouws was suspended by the party on Thursday after a video he posted and deleted in 2010 resurfaced online on Wednesday.

In it, he repeatedly uses the K-word and calls for black South Africans to be killed. 

DA director of communications, Richard Newton, admitted the party had dropped the ball when vetting the former Nelson Mandela Bay ward councillor. 

Gouws has a YouTube page with 128,000 subscribers where he uploads podcasts and video commentary on current affairs. 

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But there are a few videos that Gouws deleted, one in particular which remerged and resulted in his suspension. 

Newton said Gouws made the video in March 2010 and later deleted it.

“I think that he had something like 1,300 videos on his timeline.” 

Newton admitted Gouws was not properly vetted before being employed by the party. 

“We do have a very strict process of vetting people but I think this may be one that got away.” 

Despite being suspended, Gouws remains a member of Parliament pending an internal disciplinary hearing by the DA.