Trollip jeered out of Langa event
NELSON Mandela Bay mayor Athol Trollip was booed off the stage – and threatened with chairs – at the Allanridge Hall in Uitenhage yesterday during the 33rd Langa Massacre commemorations.
Scores of ANC-clad supporters jumped out of their seats as the mayor was about to give the welcoming speech, saying they did not want to hear anything he had to say and drowning out DA supporters.
Singing struggle songs, ANC supporters climbed onto chairs, chanting that his administration was divisive and “Trollip must fall”.
Leading up to the Human Rights Day celebration, the event was marketed as an ANC event even though it was sponsored by the provincial government, with the municipality providing the venue.
Asked if he had at any point considered not attending the event, Trollip said he had not.
“Apart from wanting to pay my personal respects to the families of the victims, I have worked with the Langa Massacre Foundation since being elected mayor,” he said.
“A similar incident happened last year, when councillor [Lunga] Nombhexeza caused disrespect at the night vigil held before the commemoration.”
While the commemoration was a government event, an ANC poster marketing it was circulated, creating the impression that it was an ANC event and not a provincial one – an issue Trollip said he had raised with Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation MEC Pemmy Majodina.
“I did raise my concerns [on Tuesday] with MEC Majodina that there were ANC pamphlets produced for the event and that it was funded by state money.”
Trollip said he had decided to leave when it became clear to him that the ANC “rent-a-crowd” was not going to allow him to speak.
“This was clearly an orchestrated incident as right from our arrival in the hall a well-known ANC Youth League rabble-rouser, Mr [Luyolo] Nqakula, was exhorting the crowd to ‘remove Trollip’.
“He then went and sat with councillor [Andile] Lungisa who is, as everyone knows, a most unsuitable aspirant mayor,” he said.
ANC Bay acting chairman Phumzile Tshuni said Trollip’s claims that calls for him to leave were orchestrated were not true, but simply reflected how people felt.
“[Yesterday] is about [families] remembering their loved ones – so people are emotional and when they see Trollip, reality sets in and they think about how they have to pay reconnecting fees when their electricity is shut off,” he said.
Majodina asked the ANC supporters to remember that the metro was a multiparty city and as the leader of the DA-led coalition government, Trollip had a right to be included in the programme.
“However, the masses have their own resolutions about the DA-led government here,” she said.
“I did not instigate them – nobody instigated them, as they felt that they cannot listen to him.
“Community members asked how could Trollip be part [of the event] when in fact his forebears had caused these deaths.
“I did my statutory obligations in trying to educate the community about political tolerance, but there was none from the community.”
Majodina confirmed later that she had received Trollip’s e-mail regarding the ANC poster.
She said political parties were free to do their own posters when events such as Human Rights Day and Youth Day came up.
ANC provincial executive committee deputy chairman Mlungisi Mvoko said the people who died on March 21 1985 were “ours”, not Trollip’s.
“Think about it – today we’re here commemorating Human Rights Day and we’re going to be led by Trollip, who was on the other side of the people who killed those we’re here to commemorate.”
In reaction, Trollip said he would not respond to this “nonsense”.