Mbeki slams SA 'killing fields'
2006-06-07 15:20
Cape Town - President Thabo Mbeki had harsh words on Wednesday for those using violent methods to pursue their interests, those who were dragging the country back to apartheid-era "killing fields".
A tiny minority of citizens were holding the democratic victory in contempt and could expect to be dealt with "vigorously".
These included striking security guards who have employed criminal means to press home their demand for higher pay, he told the national assembly in debate on the presidency's budget vote.
"This minority, which obviously believes that it has the right to do as it pleases, with impunity and outside the parameters of our democratic order, has sought to drag our country back to the killing fields that marked the dying days of the apartheid system," Mbeki said.
"I am talking here of the people who have, since the advent of democracy, committed murder to advance their social and political goals.
"I am talking of those who are throwing people off moving trains and assassinating workers in the private security sector," Mbeki said to applause.
Peaceful solutions
"I refer also to those who have murdered local government councillors."
There were legal and peaceful means for the solution of social conflict, the president said.
"I must make this very clear to everybody involved in these criminal acts intended to undermine our democracy, that they will not succeed to intimidate and terrorise into submission either the masses of our people and their organised formations, or our democratic state and government.
"The law enforcement agencies will act vigorously to defeat this anti-democratic plague.
"Similarly, nobody serving within the machinery of state would be allowed to abuse his or her position of power to subvert or undermine the democratic order, either through acts or omissions," Mbeki said.
"All our political, executive and administrative authorities, and the individuals serving within these structures, must understand that the rule of law ... will also apply to them, without fear or favour."
- SAPA