SANCO stages protest march to Botswana Embassy

“This is the same organisation that in 2019 was taken by the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the Human Rights Commission to the Equality Court for insisting that hoisting the apartheid flag was not hate speech,” he explained adding that right after that court case, a leader of Afriforum tweeted the apartheid flag in defiance of the courts verdict.

“We reject this collaboration between the Botswana government and Afri- Forum as what we see as a neo- colonial agenda apparently aimed at reversing the gains of a new post- colonial and post- apartheid dispensation where South Africa

together with other fellow African states continue to stand together in solidarity for a better future for all of the continent’s people,” said Malematja.

He posited that they have already seen how Afri- Forum seems to have gone out of their way to assault the integrity of former Speaker of the National Assembly and now Minister of Defence Comrade Thandi Modise by propping up an unfortunate incident involving the death of pigs.

He said if they could not find human rights violations as a truncated and supposedly noble cause against a black person, they then had to find any dirt that sticks, including concocted pigs’ rights if need be.

“We believe that such a pattern of behaviour can be construed by some to mean that Afriforum defends the colonial and apartheid legacy of a racially divided society.

“This can be concluded based on the litany of cases they select. Consequently, their forays into the international arena such as in the Botswana case could be viewed as nothing but a façade aimed at creating the impression of a supposedly noble human rights organisation to dupe the international community and multilateral institutions where they seek associate membership whilst on the other hand and in contrast arguably galvanising the legacy of our ugly past.

“This is in spite of the fact that whist the High Court Judge in Botswana ruled that this case was a fabrication and outrightly false, the Botswana government through Afri- forum is nonetheless adamant to continue with the case,” Malematja argued.