The Democratic Alliance will take disciplinary action against its MP Dianne Kohler Barnard for sharing a post on Facebook praising PW Botha.

“I have requested our disciplinary body… to take steps to investigate,” DA leader Mmusi Maimane told News24.

This was part of the party’s internal processes which had to be followed and Kohler Barnard would be given a chance to give her side of the story.

“We don’t support any views which welcome PW Botha, we certainly don’t associate ourselves with a perpetrator of evil against South Africans.”

Kohler Barnard explained to News24 that she had shared the Facebook post two weeks ago without realising what it said.

The post had to do with KwaZulu-Natal Hawks Johan Booysen’s recent suspension.

“It was on Facebook, I was sharing many posts about the Johan Booysen matter and his latest suspension and I shared many, many posts by the journalist Paul Kirk.”

She then shared another post about Booysen but did not realise that further down the post it said “Please come back PW Botha – you were far more honest than any of these ANC rogues, and you provided a far better service to the public…”

The post by @DKB20 is indefensible. She has withdrawn it and apologized. now our internal disciplinary processes will be dealing with this.
— Mmusi Maimane (@MmusiMaimane) October 1, 2015

“Within a few hours overnight I was sent a message by my KZN leader who pointed out what was in the middle of the post,” Kohler Barnard said.

“I immediately erased it and apologised to him and nothing more was said on Facebook and now two weeks later someone has chosen to share it on Twitter.”

DA MP Dianne Kohler Barnard apologises after sharing a Facebook post praising PW Botha pic.twitter.com/23t0A3zwE2
— City Press Online (@City_Press) October 1, 2015

Kohler Barnard said she apologised and would continue to apologise.

Former DA leader Helen Zille took to Twitter to ask Kohler Barnard to remove the post and apologise.

@DKB20 Please withdraw that post and apologise unconditionally. It is indefensible, even if you missed the P W Botha bit.
— Helen Zille (@helenzille) October 1, 2015. News24