Mandela’s relative calls on BLF to help Survé
LATE former president Nelson Mandela’s great-grandson has called on Black First Land First (BLF) members to defend Independent Media executive chairperson Dr Iqbal Survé from his adversaries.
Mayibuye Mandela made the call during the BLF’S special policy conference in Durban yesterday to discuss prospects of amending its constitution in order to meet the requirement of the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) to remove a racist clause.
Mandela, 27, chairperson of Vukani Community Development, said Survé was under attack for transforming the country’s biggest media company. He said BLF was under the same attack. “Dr Iqbal Survé is being attacked by the white supremacists.”
He said certain black people supported the war against Survé because “as black people we don’t love each other”, said Mandela.
“We don’t just support Independent Newspapers just because we are seeking publicity, but we support it because it is a company that belongs to a black person Dr Iqbal Survé,” he said.
Mandela also said Survé had once been his great-grandfather’s doctor, but he did not support him for that reason.
“The reason is because they are trying to kill the black man’s agenda, the black man’s media, which is the only media house that does not do copy and paste for the sake of trending.”
He said when Survé took over the company from the Irish “it was 90% white, the same people who stole our land. But do you know what that gentleman did? He changed it, and 90% of people working for Independent Newspapers today are black people, and 10% are white. He did not do that looking for favour, but it is because he knows that he is a black man.”
The Equality Court has confirmed the IEC’S decision to deregister the BLF as a political party and prevent it from participating in the country’s elections.
The IEC took the decision after activist organisation Afriforum lodged a complaint that BLF was a racist party because its constitution contains a clause that states that white people could not be members.
BLF deputy president Zanele Lwana told Independent Media that BLF would discuss prospects of amending the constitution with the aim of removing the racist clause.