POLL | Should DA MP Renaldo Gouws be removed from parliament?

DA councillor Renaldo Gouws’s debut in parliament as an MP has sparked debate, with thousands of people expressing mixed reactions.

Gouws was sworn in as a MP on Friday, a promotion after serving as a ward councillor in Nelson Mandela Bay. However, not everybody was happy with him becoming a law maker.

More than 40,000 people had signed a petition on Change.org by Tuesday morning. The petition was started by Kimberly Jones, calling for Gouws to be removed as MP and accusing him of being racist.

A video from 2009, in which he talked about “reverse apartheid”, resurfaced on social media over the weekend.

TimesLIVE previously reported Gouws said in the video that white people are painted as the enemy, but “if Africa had to disappear off the face of the earth no-one would f***** notice”.

Gouws dismissed claims he was racist and apologised for the tone he used in the viral video.

“I posted a lengthy Facebook post from 2013 in which I apologised for how I delivered my message in my videos (angry, hostile, confrontational and crass).

“I refute any claims of racism or being a racist. I can, however, see how my message was distorted in the way it was delivered by me and I take full responsibility for the actions of my younger and immature self. For that I apologise unreservedly,” Gouws said.