DA in process of replacing sacked Renaldo Gouws in its parliamentary caucus

CAPE TOWN - The Democratic Alliance (DA) says it’s still in the process of replacing Renaldo Gouws in the party’s parliamentary caucus after firing him last week.

The DA said Gouws would forfeit his seat in the National Assembly following an investigation by the party’s federal legal commission.

The commission found Gouws guilty of contravening “several sections of the DA’s constitution”.

This after video footage of him resurfaced where he was on a rant about black South Africans using racist and derogatory language.

Gouws was one of 87 DA members of the National Assembly after serving as a councillor in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro.

But his parliamentary career has been short-lived after the party terminated his membership following an internal probe into racist remarks he made over a decade ago.

DA spokesperson Willie Aucamp said that normal party procedure means the next person on the party’s Eastern Cape list will replace Gouws.

Gouws was sixth on the DA's Eastern Cape regional list.

"We are a federal party, so the province of the Eastern Cape will have to confirm that. But it will happen quite quickly, I assume," said Aucamp.

Aucamp said Gouws had also not appealed the decision to terminate his membership and remove him as an MP.

"He does have room to appeal, obviously he does have room to appeal, but we haven't received any appeal from him," said Aucamp.

Gouws instead chose to take to social media where he said the racist terms used in his videos were never meant to "insult or belittle" anyone and profusely apologised to anyone he offended.