Cope defends Lekota over disbandment of commandos

COPE has strongly defended its leader Mosiuoa Lekota following an attack by the DA which accused him of being responsible for criminal attacks on farms after his decision to disband the commando system in the army while he was defence minister under Thabo Mbeki.

The DA’s John Steenhuisen made the allegations while campaigning with outgoing Western Cape Premier Helen Zille in Kempton Park last week.

Steenhuisen told his party supporters that the DA had a rural safety strategy that would help fight crime saying “the truth of the matter is that there was a massive vacuum left in rural safety when the commando system was disbanded under the then minister of defence Mosiuoa Lekota, and we were told there was going to be a new system, but his new system never arrived,” Steenhuisen said.

His comments irked Cope, which described them as the “National Party tactics of swart gevaar” to maintain a grip on the white voters who are embracing the new South Africa”.

Spokesperson Dennis Bloem said Steenhuisen’s accusation that Lekota had disbanded the commandos was disingenuous, dishonest and amounted to political thuggery.

“The Constitution of South Africa, under Chapter 11; Clause 199(2) states that, ‘The Defence Force is the only lawful military force in the Republic. The Constitution is the document which made the formation of any paramilitary force unlawful in South Africa and not Mr Lekota,” Bloem said.

He said police allowed civilians to become reservists and any citizen who wanted to participate in the fight against crime could join and become a reservist. “If the DA is really committed to the defence of the Constitution, they should encourage those individuals committed to fight crime, to join the SAPS as reservists rather than to use racist tactics of ‘swart gevaar’ to garner votes by spreading fear and instability based on racial division.”

In his reaction, Steenhuisen said he made a point that the commando system was disbanded while Lekota was defence minister, saying it was a matter of fact that was “frankly beyond dispute. The point I made was that after the disbandment of the commando system there was a vacuum created in policing of rural areas that has never been filled. This vacuum has led to rural communities becoming more vulnerable to crime, farm attacks and farm murders. This is a statement of fact”.

Yesterday, Steenhuisen said his statement was made as a precursor to the introduction of the DA proposal to massively improve rural safety through the introduction of the DA rural safety strategy which would not only fill the vacuum and render rural communities far safer, but lead to a more resourced, intelligence-driven response to the scourge of farm attacks and murders.

“The rather hysterical knee-jerk reaction from Mr Bloem betrays a sensitivity from Cope that begs more questions than answers.

“This hysterical and unfortunate race-based response has also led to the Cope mask of their proclaimed non-racialism slipping the moment the party feels under pressure and I hope voters have taken notice of this,” he said.

“Instead of being overly sensitive to factual realities, unless of course Mr Lekota is denying that he was defence minister at the time, Cope should be backing our DA plan so that we can finally start keeping our farming and rural communities safe,” Steenhuisen said.