The DA took down its controversial Phoenix posters only after the party's federal executive effectively overruled leader John Steenhuisen by rejecting the campaign material and instructing KwaZulu-Natal chair Dean Macpherson to apologise to voters.
Steenhuisen had publicly defended the posters just a day before.
Provincial leaders who attended a meeting of the fedex are said to have spoken strongly against the so-called racists vs heroes posters after KwaZulu-Natal leader Francois Rodgers distanced his provincial executive from them, saying they were never approved by his province.
The paired posters, which read: "The ANC called you racists" and "The DA calls you heroes", sparked a political storm for the DA and have thrown its election campaign into chaos, with the issue following Steenhuisen and other leaders whenever they hit the campaign trail.
The posters referred to the July unrest in which 36 people were killed in Phoenix alone. Some of those killed were not involved in looting, but were stopped and assaulted by alleged vigilantes.
The matter is expected to haunt the DA until election day and may cause further ructions in the party, which was divided by the departure of its leader Mmusi Maimane two years ago.
On Wednesday, Steenhuisen put up a spirited defence of the posters amid growing criticism.
It's understood that Steenhuisen had little to say on the matter during Thursday's meeting; Macpherson was not in attendance as he is not a member of the DA fedex.
After the meeting Macpherson issued a statement announcing that the party would be removing the posters, and said the decision to erect the posters had been his.
Now some party leaders want Macpherson disciplined for bringing the party into disrepute, a process expected to unfold after the November 1 local government elections.
Several sources who attended the DA fedex meeting on Thursday said provinces were unanimous in denouncing Macpherson, apparently saying his posters were at odds with the values of the DA, before ordering that he issue a public apology on the matter.
The issue was supposed to have been settled by a vote but this was dumped when it became clear that all the provinces were opposed to Macpherson - leaving Steenhuisen with egg on his face.
There's now a strong push for Macpherson to be charged. A prominent DA leader said he would lay a charge after the elections.
Macpherson is also said to have undermined party processes as his posters were not presented to or sanctioned by the DA fedex, which is tasked with approving all party electoral campaign material and messaging.
"What Dean did took the attention away from the campaign to anger and criticism against the DA. I don't believe he meant to sabotage us but had he not gone behind our backs with those posters, we would have been able to tell him they do not represent our values and should have never been seen by people outside the party," said a senior leader who attended the meeting.
"In the history of the DA, there is no campaign material that has never been approved by a leadership structure - it makes no sense that one member would decide on messaging . we already know he did not do it with the blessings of KZN, therefore he probably received a go-ahead from national.
There's now a strong push for DA KwaZulu-Natal chair Dean Macpherson Macpherson to be charged
"At the fedex, provincial leaders were very brave to take a principled stand and vote to remove the posters and apologise. However, it was very difficult and almost awkward to do so because the leader had endorsed and even defended the racists vs heroes message, but we had to do the right thing."
The night before the fedex meeting on Thursday, Rodgers is said to have told his provincial executive committee that the saga had embarrassed his province and he would be pushing for Macpherson to apologise.
Rodgers declined to comment yesterday and referred the Sunday Times to Macpherson.
Macpherson declined to comment, and Steenhuisen did not respond to questions sent to him.
The matter has caused further cracks in the DA. The Sunday Times can reveal that some prominent DA leaders took issue with the fedex directive and confronted colleagues who sit in the national structure.
In the DA Ekurhuleni WhatsApp group, former MP Mike Waters lambasted the fedex decision, saying it only served to help the ANC.
"& now the ANC want to take DA to the HRC [South African Human Rights Commission] because as a political party in SA you are not allowed to criticise the ANC. Well the FedEx assisted the ANC. Gutless FedEx. Every single one of them," he wrote.
He then confronted DA mayoral candidate Refiloe Nt'seke, who sits on the federal executive. "What did you vote Refiloe?" asked Waters. He said in the group it was his right to ask people he voted on to the federal executive to be accountable.
Those who agreed with Waters in the group included Ghaleb Cachalia.
From the messages the Sunday Times has seen, Nt'seke did not respond to Waters. She said she had not seen his post, saying she was focused on her campaign to become mayor of Ekurhuleni.
Approached for comment, Waters said: "It's a private WhatsApp group, so I am surprised you've got it, copies of it. You must speak to Refiloe."
But other leaders were more open about their opposition to Macpherson's posters.
DA member of the Gauteng provincial legislature Khume Ramulifho said the Phoenix posters were "distasteful" and could have a negative impact in other provinces.
"That thing was distasteful, it should not have been the case. Our focus should be unifying all South Africans of all racial lines. We don't need to be taking sides, especially after the unrest, which was divisive. We have got a role to unite all South Africans so that the focus is about building a South Africa where all of us are sharing the common vision of building this country," he said.
Asked whether there should be consequences for Macpherson, Ramulifho said it was not the time for internal party battles and that the focus should be on winning the elections.
"For me the focus is just on elections. Posters are down, let's focus on how to win votes, that's my take. Let's not do something which brings divisions," he said.
In defence of the posters Steenhuisen said on Wednesday: "I will call them heroes and I will continue to call them heroes because they did not retreat in the face of danger, they did not hide away like SAPS [the South African Police Service] and [police minister] Bheki Cele when things got real.
"I am never going to apologise for calling ordinary South Africans, who stand up for law and order, who protect the rule of law and are on the side of right, I am never going to apologise for calling them heroes.
"They are heroes whether they be black, white, Indian or coloured as we saw during those terrible days in KwaZulu-Natal. They are heroes because they stepped up when the government stepped away."
There is a belief among those opposed to the posters that Macpherson could not have acted without the knowledge of the DA's national leaders.
"Remember, the leader was defending it before the party made any decision, meaning he would have seen it because when the journalists asked him, he defended it. He didn't say 'I'm investigating', he just said 'It's the right thing' and that's when the federal executive had to meet and take a decision," said an insider.
"If he was not aware, the first he should have said was that he was going to investigate and would come back to you guys, but decided to defend it, meaning that he was aware. Because you can't defend something you are not sure of."
The actions of Steenhuisen and Macpherson, according to the insider, had brought the party into "disrepute" and they should face consequences.
"There's already a perception that our interest is only for minority, not for black people in general; now you do this and it just continues with the perpetuation of that stereotype, but also remember the issue here is that you needed to bring some form of unity because people were divided along racial lines during the unrest.
"Now you're siding with people who were not even following the law; remember they had guns and all those things which were not really lawful."
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