Mngxitama ‘defending black people’
Congress of the People (Cope) leader Mosiuoa Lekota has defied Andile Mngxitama’s calls to kill white people, by teaming up with outspoken and controversial Afrikaans singer Steve Hofmeyr, in a call to put the Black First Land First (BLF) behind bars to be “rehabilitated”.
Lekota accompanied civil rights group Toekomsvonk, of which Hofmeyr is a non-executive director, to the Brooklyn police station yesterday to lay charges against the BLF leader, after a video surfaced of Mngxitama calling on supporters to kill white people, their children and their pets, in response to an alleged threat by billionaire Johann Rupert.
Hofmeyr and Lekota laid charges of contravening the Protection of Constitutional Democracy Against Terrorist and Related Activities Act as well as the Intimidation Act.
“Lekota and I disagree on a lot of things,” Hofmeyr said. “When we get to things we agree on, which is less bloodshed, that is a subject we have consensus about… I will fight this kind of saying every time.”
Mngxitama should be sent to a correctional facility to be rehabilitated and educated as he is not fit for society, Lekota said.
“It is a crime to preach racism. Andile ought to be arrested… so he can learn how to live in society. The BLF is not a political party that can be allowed under our constitution… If we find any leader of any party saying any of these things, they should be immediately removed from society.”
This was the second charge by Lekota’s party against Mngxitama this week, after Cope’s national chairperson opened another case in Kimberley on Tuesday.
The case included the Democratic Alliance, union Solidarity and AfriForum.
Meanwhile, the ANC has been mum about the “call for murder”.
“The ANC I knew, would never have kept quiet,” said Lekota. “I can’t keep quiet when the lives of any South African is threatened because of the complexion they carry.
“South Africans that have made it possible for us to be here today would never have kept quiet. The National Freedom Party (NFP) has thrown its weight behind Black First Land First (BLF) leader Andile Mngxitama, calling his recent controversial statements a defence of black people in South Africa.
“It is about time the landless black nation appreciates the fact that in our lifetime, we still have the rare calibre of leadership like Andile Mngxitama,” said NFP spokesperson Sabelo Sigudu in a statement yesterday.
Sigudu was referring to the Black first Land First’s statement that five white people would be killed for every black life lost.
Sigudu said those against Mngxitama’s sentiments were “directly condoning black genocide” and that billionaire Johann Rupert was publicly inciting black-on-black violence in a recent interview with him.
He said it was disturbing few black people agreed with Mngxitama, making “unnecessary” noise against the leader when all he strived for was to defend the marginalised black nation.
“Mngxitama must not be treated based on his black skin-colour, we have heard it loud and clear in parliament during the land debate [when] the racist Freedom Front Plus leader Pieter Groenewald made threats about civil war, said Sigudu.
“It has now become a norm for him to say that ‘If people want the land back, they are inviting civil war’.”
Sigudu also said that he personally pledged his support for Mngxitama to “fight the good fight for the defenceless and landless black Africans against white monopoly settlers who are direct beneficiaries of the white apartheid regime”.
Sigudu concluded the statement by calling for “sober political parties” to unite against those who were resisting the BLF’s goals.
“The time for sober political parties to unite against the powerful elite who utilise their financial power to deliberately divide and sabotage the rainbow nation we are shaping as a country is now.”
Fight the good fight for the defenceless and landless black Africans against white monopoly settlers who are direct beneficiaries of the white apartheid regime. Sabelo Sigudu National Freedom Party spokesperson