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Cape Town - The DA on Wednesday added fuel to the fire of controversy ignited by government spokesperson Jimmy Manyi's comments on coloured people, with the release of a recording of remarks he made about Indian South Africans.
"Indians, we should be having only 3% [of positions on management]. They are sitting at 5.9%. I call it the power of bargaining. Indians have bargained their way to the top," Manyi said in an address delivered to the Durban Chamber of Commerce last year.
The DA's federal chairperson, Wilmot James, told journalists at Parliament that the recording, made by SAFM radio for broadcast, was tracked down by party researchers two days ago.
Manyi had been speaking in his capacity as labour department director-general at the time.
The address took place on February 20 last year, a month before his controversial remarks about there being an "over-supply" and "over-concentration" of coloured people in the Western Cape.
Copies of the Durban recording were handed to journalists at Wednesday's press conference. On it, Manyi's audience of chamber members can be heard laughing at his remarks.
James called Manyi's remarks "racist" and "vile", and said they had no place in a democratic society trying to overcome the painful divisions of its past.
He called for Manyi's dismissal.
"The DA today call on President [Jacob] Zuma to dismiss his government spokesperson, Jimmy Manyi," he said.
Contacted for comment on Wednesday, Manyi confirmed he had made the remarks in his Durban address, but told Sapa they were in jest.
"The remarks were made in jest; just a jest, on a light note. I was quoting figures at the time. The remark was really just made in jest," he said.
He declined to comment further.
Earlier, James described Manyi's remarks as "nothing more than bigotry and prejudice disguised as humour".
