---
title: "Fact-Check – Did Helen Zille call MK and EFF politicians “dogs”?"
description: "Despite the uproar on social media, Zille was really just using a well-known English idiom."
type: "NewsArticle"
publisher: "Daily Maverick"
site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za"
section: "WATCH THE VIDEO"
author: "Rebecca Davis"
author_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/rebeccadavis-2-2/"
canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2024-07-11-fact-check-did-helen-zille-call-mk-and-eff-politicians-dogs/"
published: "2024-07-11T22:05:50"
updated: "2024-07-11T22:06:26"
lang: "en-ZA"
word_count: 332
---

# Fact-Check – Did Helen Zille call MK and EFF politicians “dogs”?

> Despite the uproar on social media, Zille was really just using a well-known English idiom.

By Rebecca Davis · Published 12 July 2024, 00:05 SAST · Updated 12 July 2024, 00:06 SAST

## Key points
- Helen Zille's alleged "dogs" comment stirred up a social media storm, but closer inspection reveals it was more of a linguistic slip-up than a canine insult, with Zille clarifying that KZN won't be left to the proverbial pooches if coalition talks go awry.
- Social media frenzy over reported remarks by DA's Helen Zille about MK and EFF politicians in KZN
- Zille clarifies her statement, denies calling people of KZN "dogs"
- Controversy sparked online, accusations of racism
- Zille defends herself, calls it "manufactured outrage"

## Content

In early July, [social media went wild](https://twitter.com/search?q=zille%20dogs&src=typed_query) when it was reported that DA federal chair Helen Zille had referred to MK and EFF politicians in KwaZulu-Natal as “dogs”.

But did this really happen?

[https://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2024-07-04-many-defend-zilles-kzn-will-not-be-thrown-to-the-dogs-remarks/](https://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2024-07-04-many-defend-zilles-kzn-will-not-be-thrown-to-the-dogs-remarks/)

The source of the report was a [press conference](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IXSbibuxrM) given by Helen Zille in Johannesburg on Tuesday 2 July in response to the [deadlock in negotiations](https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2024-07-01-premier-lesufi-halts-gauteng-cabinet-announcement-after-negotiations-with-da-stall/) around the Gauteng coalition government between the DA and the ANC.

[YouTube video: "YouTube video"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Joh4yq2Q9yw)

What Zille actually said was:

“We are not going to bring KwaZulu-Natal down if they don’t agree to the document terms in Gauteng. We are not going to do that. We are not irresponsible people.

“We don’t want to hand KwaZulu-Natal to the MK and EFF. It will be a total disaster for that province…

“We are not going to say the people of KZN can be thrown to the dogs.”

In response, the KZN youth wing of the MK party [accused Zille](https://www.citizen.co.za/news/helen-zille-clarifies-kzn-thrown-to-dogs/) of calling “the people of KZN” dogs.

They said they were sending “warning shots” to Zille as a result.

Many users of platforms like X also piled on, accusing Zille of racism.

Zille responded by [terming the issue](https://www.citizen.co.za/news/helen-zille-clarifies-kzn-thrown-to-dogs/) “manufactured outrage”, and pointing out that being “thrown to the dogs” is a well-known English idiom.

The standard definition of allowing something to “go to the dogs” or be “thrown to the dogs” is to allow something to deteriorate in quality.

Online [etymology sites](https://www.theidioms.com/go-to-the-dogs/) suggest that the derivation is from around the fifteenth century and referred to spoiled foods being given to dogs.

Helen Zille was not literally referring to MK and EFF politicians as dogs; she was expressing the view that if the DA pulled out of KwaZulu Natal politics, the situation for the people of KZN would worsen. **DM**

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