Freedom Front Plus bid to bar BLF from registration
THE Freedom Front Plus (FF+) wants Black First Land First (BLF) barred from taking part in the upcoming elections, saying that the party is racist and should not have been registered by the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC).
The party announced yesterday that it had approached the Electoral Court in Bloemfontein on the grounds that the IEC’s approval of BLF as a registered party was irregular, illegal and invalid, arguing that BLF unfairly discriminates against other races by stating that its membership is open only to black people.
Party leader Pieter Groenewald said: “South Africa’s Constitution states in Section 1 that the South African state is based on four core values, of which non-racialism is one.
“This makes it clear that the IEC has made a big mistake. The FF+ asks the court to rectify this error,” said Groenewald.
BLF vowed that it would defeat FF+’s “attempts” to frustrate their party and its cause.
Party leader Andile Mngxitama said: “We note that FF+ represents land thieves who are terrified that finally a party that represents black people is coming to take their land, and is going to Parliament.
“This is a desperate act by an organisation that represents land thieves to try stop us from going to Parliament,” said Mngxitama.
He attacked the basis of FF+’s legal argument that the party should be barred because it opened its membership to blacks only, and therefore it was racist.
“How can black people be racist in their own country when they have been oppressed for more than 350 years? That is rubbish. Anyone who says a black person can be racist is stupid. We will meet them in court, defeat them there and in Parliament.
“We are still going to take their land too,” said Mngxitama.
Both parties have been at each other’s throats since the birth of BLF. The conflict stems from multiple threats of violence, including calls by BLF leader, Andile Mngxitama for the murder of white people.
Subsequent to these threats, the IEC warned the party to refrain from making hate speech comments.
Chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo told BLF’s secretary-general, Yerushka Chetty, that they had received numerous complaints about BLF leader Andile Mngxitama’s statements about the killing of white people, made at an event in Potchefstroom.
Groenewald however said the IEC was not the correct platform to deal with BLF’s “racism”.
“The IEC’s poor response to the FF+inquiries demonstrates a shocking contempt for the matter, as the openly racist and inciting BLF poses a major threat to democracy and racial harmony in the country.
“It will be in everyone’s interest to keep the BLF out of the country’s political arena and out of Parliament,” said Groenewald.