Will Malema cost ANC votes? The ruling party is on the horns of a dilemma - and its name is Julius Malema... Full Story...
The disruption of meetings, forcible occupation of halls, hurling insults and name-calling have further polarised former comrades as the war between the ANC and the Congress of the People (COPE) gets uglier.
Julius Malema, the President of the ANC Youth League, has accused Mbhazima Shilowa, the leader of COPE, of neglecting to maintain his child. And he denigrated the former Gauteng premier as "just a security guard".
"They accused us of not being educated, of not being people of moral standing in the society, but Shilowa's profession is just a security guard. He is refusing to support his own child. How can a man who cannot support his own child support the whole nation?" Malema asked while addressing students at the University of Limpopo on Friday.
Shilowa worked as a security guard at The Star in Johannesburg and rose through the trade union ranks. He was dragged into court in a paternity battle by a man later proved to be his son.
Shilowa said that after the court ruling he paid maintenance "without fail". He said his job as a security guard proved that he was a son of working people, and he would not stoop to Malema's level.
As the war of words raged, a Free State mayoress and ANC supporters forcibly occupied a hall that had been booked by the COPE leadership for a meeting.
Mathabo Mokapo-Leeto, the mayoress of Matjabeng, told the crowd in Sesotho: "I am the mayor. I can occupy any space in all of the municipal properties any time, anywhere, however I wish or like."
COPE organisers had booked the Phomolong community hall for their meeting, which was due to start at 3pm on Friday - but ANC supporters, many wearing yellow Zuma T-shirts, were bussed in during the morning and occupied the venue.
By the time the meeting was due to start, ANC supporters had lined the street outside the hall. But when a member of COPE's interim leadership showed the police a receipt proving that the hall had been booked by the soon-to-be-launched party, the police ordered the ANC supporters to leave.
An eyewitness said the mayor then drove up and down the street in a vehicle on which a public-address system had been mounted, saying: "Do not listen to Lekota's and Shilowa's people - they only want power because they were not elected at Polokwane."
The meeting went ahead with main speakers Anele Mda, the COPE interim youth leader, and Willie Madisha, the former Cosatu president and COPE's labour convener.
The incident is the latest in a series of clashes and near confrontations between ANC supporters and COPE, the breakaway movement led by Shilowa and Terror Lekota, the former ANC chairman and defence minister.
On Thursday, in Verulam, KwaZulu-Natal, Lekota had to abandon his attempts to speak at a meeting after it was disrupted by ANC supporters who hurled chairs, and allegedly threatened and assaulted COPE supporters.
The violent disruption of the meeting has sparked fears that some places could become "no-go areas" in a grim reminder of the 1980s and 1990s conflict between the ANC and the Inkatha Freedom Party in the province.
Lekota also had to abandon a meeting with businessmen in Welkom on Friday because of fears of disruption by ANC supporters.
Ruling party supporters gathered noisily outside another Cope meeting, in Heidedal, near Bloemfontein, on Thursday.
On Saturday, Lekota lashed out at ANC leaders, including Senzo Mchunu, the party's KwaZulu-Natal chairman, for "instigating ANC supporters to violently disrupt our meetings".
"The ANC leadership now takes it for granted that they are the only political player on the South African political plane. They alone may criticise and silence other political parties. The present leadership of the ANC does not accept that, in a democracy, all [parties] enjoy equal opportunity to canvas their policies with all members of society," said Lekota.
Mchunu said this week that Lekota was "urinating" on the ANC by criticising it, and was provoking ordinary members to defend the party.
Lekota said the ANC leadership did not respect the right of voters to listen to all political parties.
"They think they own voters that previously voted for them like their property. But in a democracy voters are free and must be allowed to change their views if a party they supported fails to satisfy them, such as the ANC now is failing them."
0 comments:
Post a Comment