Helen Zille defends Afrikaners: 'Nothing stopped everyone else'

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Former Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Helen Zille has been criticised for a social media post in which she praised Afrikaners for their work ethic compared to other South Africans.

Nicknamed “GodZille,” the 74 year old is known for her outspoken and often controversial views about politics, race and crime in South Africa.

HELEN ZILLE PRAISES AFRIKANER WORK ETHNIC

On her X account, Helen Zille questioned the ATM party’s demand for empowerment opportunities for black South Africans.

She posted: “How do they define ‘economic freedom’? How will we recognise it? And how does ATM propose to get there?”.

In the comments section, many South Africans spoke on the topic of “white privilege”, and how it had put other races on a financial back foot.

X user @langalikethesun claimed that Afrikaners, in particular, had been showed favouritism through economic empowerment progammes that aided employment, skills development, welfare services, and companies initially targeting their clientele.

Helen Zille clapped back: “Afrikaners took all opportunities very seriously. Educated their children into professional skills and out of poverty. Built huge enterprises from the bottom up. Nothing stopping everyone else from following that example”.

The X user clapped back: “It was impossible to fail. They had the biggest safety net known as Apartheid. Had they completed fairly with everyone, I’d be the first to applaud them. But nope…they had to screw over a lot of people.”

‘THE CAUCASITY’

On the X app, Helen Zille’s comments about Afrikaners riled up many South Africans.

Award-winning social justice commentator Darren Campher posted: “The caucasity to call a crime against humanity an ‘opportunity’ is so on brand for Godzille”.

Here’s what others had to say…

@fragrncefinesse: “Afrikaners enriched and empowered themselves by systematically extracting wealth from the labor and resources of Black South Africans while denying them land, education, political power, and basic human rights”.

@CRangataJ: “There was a system, designed to protect and advance the Afrikaner. Your white inheritance was better than mine, due to no fault of mine. Yet today, in 2025, you want to tell me that we are the same? With your generational, apartheid enabled advantages”

@louwbreytenbach: “Even as a white Afrikaans boer, I can acknowledge how tone deaf this is. Tannie Helen Zille, that you do not honestly stand by this tweet when we ALL know our Afrikaner and white privilege with the history of South Africa?”