Blame it on Lumka Yengeni - DA
2008-05-27 21:16
Cape Town - The xenophobic violence of the past two weeks should not be used for party political gain, Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota said on Tuesday.
Rather, the nation and leaders of different political parties should deal with this unfortunate development as a collective, he told the National Assembly.
Lekota was responding to Mark Lowe of the Democratic Alliance, who objected to Finance Minister Trevor Manuel's accusation last week that Cape Town Mayor Helen Zille was "fanning the flames of (xenophobia-related) violence".
Manuel should be wary of throwing stones from glass houses, Lowe said.
While Zille and the DA-led council coalition had worked tirelessly in the city to bring the crisis under control since its inception, it would be fair to argue that the "flames which Zille is now forced to put out, were in fact sparked by the ANC's own Lumka Yengeni", he said.
Didn't arrive for meeting
"Yengeni's planned meeting with foreigners and locals in Du Noon, ostensibly 'to promote peace and community cohesion' following the attacks across Gauteng, was nothing short of a shambles," Lowe said.
"Members of the community waited a full two hours in a packed hall for her and other members of the ANC to show up (she never did).
"The aborted meeting - which was due to take place on the very same day that Hon. Manuel launched his disingenuous attack on the leader of the DA - is said to have caused the tension which sparked the subsequent flare up of violence in the Western Cape.
"Mr Manuel should apologise for his ill-conceived attack, and concede to the irony of the fact that it was members of his own caucus that really fanned the flames of the violence in the Western Cape," Lowe said.
SANDF housing refugees
Lekota said there was no foundation for Lowe's allegation that the Government had given no assistance to Zille's efforts.
More than 1 000 refugees who left their threatening communities were being housed in SA National Defence Force facilities at Youngsfield, at Zille's personal request to himself, Lekota said.
"And then of course there is further accommodation for these people elsewhere. Again, where we ourselves are involved... some of the provincial government people have also been involved."
Most important, there had been communication and collective efforts to deal with the matter, including church bodies.
"I think that all of us must insist on dealing with issues like this in the necessary dignified manner, that shows us to be a united people against something that clearly is an aberration in conflict with the provisions of our national Constitution," Lekota said.
- SAPA