{"id":7819,"date":"2021-04-05T19:50:27","date_gmt":"2021-04-05T19:50:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/?p=7819"},"modified":"2021-04-05T17:51:57","modified_gmt":"2021-04-05T17:51:57","slug":"mmusi-maimane-hits-back-at-tony-leon-over-experiment-remarks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mmusi-maimane-hits-back-at-tony-leon-over-experiment-remarks","title":{"rendered":"Mmusi Maimane hits back at Tony Leon over \u2019experiment\u2019 remarks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – South-Africa<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>Cape Town – One South Africa Movement leader Mmusi Maimane has hit back at former DA leader Tony Leon for saying at the weekend that he was \u201can experiment that went wrong\u201d.<\/p>\n

Maimane said he was described as such because he did not vote for the \u2019fight back\u2019 campaign waged by Leon in the elections a few years ago.<\/p>\n

Leon caused a stir on Saturday after an interview he gave to News24, covering among others his new book Future Tense, surfaced, quoting him a saying Maimane was \u201can experiment that went wrong\u201d.<\/p>\n

The interview sparked a difference of opinion and outrage in some quarters.<\/p>\n

Maimane has described Leon\u2019s statement as dehumanising<\/p>\n

Leon has since defended himself, saying the quote was a line out of an interview that was not published in full.<\/p>\n

He maintained that Maimane was never committed to the ideals of the DA before he joined and that he was appointed the opposition leader on the day he arrived in Parliament.<\/p>\n

Maimane told the SABC that the journey to a non-racial South Africa was going to be long and hard because there were people who kept referring to others as experiments.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need to strengthen your resolve if you are going to one day build a country where my kid, who happens to be of mixed race, … will be able to stand up in a country and be identified by their character.\u201d<\/p>\n

He described Leon\u2019s statement as falling within the ‘fight back\u2019 campaign that Leon championed when he was the party\u2019s leader.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat campaign was built on the consolidation of minorities and so when I went into the DA and said \u2018you can\u2019t consolidate minorities, you need to reach out to black South African and build a party that works for all\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems that what is happening now. The primary interest is that it is Fight Back 2.0, to put it that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maimane also said that as the new DA leadership has come back, the resolve to pursue a new South Africa for all was long gone.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe belief that others are an experiment is prevalent. You can see even the outlook that the organisation has taken is certainly the one that is not pursuing all South Africans. It is consolidating and ultimately, I think, that is where Tony Leon is playing a crucial role,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Maimane also said Leon\u2019s description of him \u201csays more about him than it says about me\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving looked at the book, the basic argument is that it has to do with the fact I did not vote for the \u2019fight back\u2019 campaign and I maintain that. I was right not do so.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the question that was on the table and to be explained by Leon to the rest of people in the DA was \u201cwho are the experimenters and who is experimented on?\u201d<\/p>\n

Political Bureau<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. Cape Town – One South Africa Movement leader Mmusi Maimane has hit back at former DA leader Tony Leon for saying at the weekend that he was \u201can experiment that went wrong\u201d. Maimane said he was described as such because he did not vote for the \u2019fight back\u2019 campaign waged by Leon […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":7818,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,8,12],"tags":[274,315,275],"class_list":["post-7819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-homepage-english","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-south-africa","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"\nMmusi Maimane hits back at Tony Leon over \u2019experiment\u2019 remarks - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Cape Town - One South Africa Movement leader Mmusi Maimane has hit back at former DA leader Tony Leon for saying at the ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mmusi-maimane-hits-back-at-tony-leon-over-experiment-remarks\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mmusi Maimane hits back at Tony Leon over \u2019experiment\u2019 remarks\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Cape Town - One South Africa Movement leader Mmusi Maimane has hit back at former DA leader Tony Leon for saying at the ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mmusi-maimane-hits-back-at-tony-leon-over-experiment-remarks\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-04-05T19:50:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/04\/img-606b4dff2d650.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"405\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mmusi-maimane-hits-back-at-tony-leon-over-experiment-remarks#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mmusi-maimane-hits-back-at-tony-leon-over-experiment-remarks\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Mmusi Maimane hits back at Tony Leon over \u2019experiment\u2019 remarks\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-04-05T19:50:27+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mmusi-maimane-hits-back-at-tony-leon-over-experiment-remarks\"},\"wordCount\":495,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mmusi-maimane-hits-back-at-tony-leon-over-experiment-remarks#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/04\/img-606b4dff2d650.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-South-Africa\",\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"head lines\",\"homepage-english\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mmusi-maimane-hits-back-at-tony-leon-over-experiment-remarks#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mmusi-maimane-hits-back-at-tony-leon-over-experiment-remarks\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mmusi-maimane-hits-back-at-tony-leon-over-experiment-remarks\",\"name\":\"Mmusi Maimane hits back at Tony Leon over \u2019experiment\u2019 remarks - South Africa\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mmusi-maimane-hits-back-at-tony-leon-over-experiment-remarks#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mmusi-maimane-hits-back-at-tony-leon-over-experiment-remarks#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/04\/img-606b4dff2d650.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-04-05T19:50:27+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"Cape Town - One South Africa Movement leader Mmusi Maimane has hit back at former DA leader Tony Leon for saying at the ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mmusi-maimane-hits-back-at-tony-leon-over-experiment-remarks#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mmusi-maimane-hits-back-at-tony-leon-over-experiment-remarks\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mmusi-maimane-hits-back-at-tony-leon-over-experiment-remarks#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/04\/img-606b4dff2d650.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/04\/img-606b4dff2d650.jpg\",\"width\":720,\"height\":405,\"caption\":\"Mmusi Maimane hits back at Tony Leon over \u2019experiment\u2019 remarks\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mmusi-maimane-hits-back-at-tony-leon-over-experiment-remarks#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Mmusi Maimane hits back at Tony Leon over \u2019experiment\u2019 remarks\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/\",\"name\":\"South Africa\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Mmusi Maimane hits back at Tony Leon over \u2019experiment\u2019 remarks - South Africa","description":"Cape Town - One South Africa Movement leader Mmusi Maimane has hit back at former DA leader Tony Leon for saying at the ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mmusi-maimane-hits-back-at-tony-leon-over-experiment-remarks","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Mmusi Maimane hits back at Tony Leon over \u2019experiment\u2019 remarks","og_description":"Cape Town - One South Africa Movement leader Mmusi Maimane has hit back at former DA leader Tony Leon for saying at the ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mmusi-maimane-hits-back-at-tony-leon-over-experiment-remarks","og_site_name":"South Africa","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2021-04-05T19:50:27+00:00","og_image":[{"width":720,"height":405,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/04\/img-606b4dff2d650.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mmusi-maimane-hits-back-at-tony-leon-over-experiment-remarks#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mmusi-maimane-hits-back-at-tony-leon-over-experiment-remarks"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Mmusi Maimane hits back at Tony Leon over \u2019experiment\u2019 remarks","datePublished":"2021-04-05T19:50:27+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mmusi-maimane-hits-back-at-tony-leon-over-experiment-remarks"},"wordCount":495,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mmusi-maimane-hits-back-at-tony-leon-over-experiment-remarks#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/04\/img-606b4dff2d650.jpg","keywords":["Africa Press","Africa Press-South-Africa","South-Africa"],"articleSection":["all news","head lines","homepage-english","policy"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mmusi-maimane-hits-back-at-tony-leon-over-experiment-remarks#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mmusi-maimane-hits-back-at-tony-leon-over-experiment-remarks","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mmusi-maimane-hits-back-at-tony-leon-over-experiment-remarks","name":"Mmusi Maimane hits back at Tony Leon over \u2019experiment\u2019 remarks - South Africa","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mmusi-maimane-hits-back-at-tony-leon-over-experiment-remarks#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mmusi-maimane-hits-back-at-tony-leon-over-experiment-remarks#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/04\/img-606b4dff2d650.jpg","datePublished":"2021-04-05T19:50:27+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"Cape Town - One South Africa Movement leader Mmusi Maimane has hit back at former DA leader Tony Leon for saying at the ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mmusi-maimane-hits-back-at-tony-leon-over-experiment-remarks#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mmusi-maimane-hits-back-at-tony-leon-over-experiment-remarks"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mmusi-maimane-hits-back-at-tony-leon-over-experiment-remarks#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/04\/img-606b4dff2d650.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/04\/img-606b4dff2d650.jpg","width":720,"height":405,"caption":"Mmusi Maimane hits back at Tony Leon over \u2019experiment\u2019 remarks"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mmusi-maimane-hits-back-at-tony-leon-over-experiment-remarks#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Mmusi Maimane hits back at Tony Leon over \u2019experiment\u2019 remarks"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/","name":"South Africa","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}