Fire Xingwana over remarks, Zuma urged
2013-02-27 11:40
Johannesburg - President Jacob Zuma has no option but to
fire Women, Children and People with Disabilities Minister Lulu Xingwana after
remarks stereotyping Calvinists, the Christian Democratic Party said on
Wednesday.
"Many non-Afrikaners, black and white, are members of
Calvinist churches and her latest statement could be considered as religious
intolerance," said CDP spokesperson Rev Theunis Botha.
Xingwana made the remarks in an interview for an Australian
Broadcasting Corporation segment on the arrest and murder charge against
paralympian Oscar Pistorius following the 14 February fatal shooting of his
girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
In the segment, which also looked at violence and gun
ownership in South Africa, she said: "Young Afrikaner men are brought up
in the Calvinist religion believing that they own a woman, they own a child,
they own everything and therefore they can take that life because they own
it."
Stereotype
This prompted the CDP to say that: "This is also not
the first time Xingwana stereotyped a community based on untruths.
"In her infamous Church Square speech, she accused
farmers across the board of atrocities against farmworkers, based on a single
Western Cape incident - by then already proven to be false by the police and
reported as such to government months earlier.
"The country does not need demolishers in Cabinet or
any other place in government, but bridge-builders."
Earlier, the Afrikanerbond said Xingwana had "abused
her office" and did not reflect honour or dignity in her position.
"This minister has proven beyond any doubt that she is
not fit to hold office in a constitutional democracy," Afrikanerbond
secretary Jan Bosman said.
He noted that she had also said: "We also have cultural
differences as well in our own communities where we have women who are forced
into marriage and we are dealing with all those issues."
In the ABC report, which aired on Monday, the focus was on
how the Pistorius case highlighted gun violence in South Africa.
"I would ask him to tell the truth. I would ask him to
respect women," Xingwana said.
"I would ask him to get rid of all his guns. Because I
believe if he did not have guns in his home, Reeva Steenkamp would be alive
today."
Apology
Bosman said Xingwana's statements were an "extreme
verbal attack on the integrity of Afrikaners".
"It is unwarranted, uncalled for and without any
substance. At the very least the minister owes Afrikaners, men, women and children,
an apology without any reservations," Bosman said.
"We can only deduce that she chose to attack Afrikaners
to create a smokescreen for her total lack of any programme of action whilst
[minister] and to deflect from the serious allegations of corruption and
mismanagement in her department and her failure to provide a report with
details about these allegations to Parliament."
The Afrikanerbond would take up the matter with Zuma's
office for the president to "act against one of the most incompetent ministers
in his Cabinet", Bosman said.
Meanwhile, Afrikaner lobby group AfriForum said on Tuesday
it was considering bringing a complaint before the Equality Court against
Xingwana.
"Xingwana's remarks boil down to a blatant
contravention of various sections of the Promotion of Equality and the
Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act," spokesperson Ernst Roets said.
"She has discriminated on the basis of race, faith and
gender. On top of that, she clearly lacks the necessary expertise to talk
knowledgeably on the topic."
Roets said AfriForum had submitted the matter to its legal
team.
- SAPA
