'ANC hate speech like Rwanda'
2008-11-17 09:32
Pretoria - A million Tutsis where killed within three months during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
"They were also described as cockroaches. If the ANC leadership describes us as cockroaches, then we must understand they are saying to members these people must be destroyed," said Mosiuoa Lekota, chairperson of the Congress of the People (Cope) at the launch of the new party's logo on Saturday.
He said the ANC's description of political opponents as "dogs, poisonous snakes and cockroaches" was hate speak, which reminded one of the sort of statements made before the Rwandan genocide.
Meetings disrupted
At least four meetings of the new party were disrupted last week, two of them in the Free State.
The latest incident happened in Thokoza on the East Rand on Sunday, when supporters wanted to gather in a school hall but were forced to leave for an open field after ANC members stopped them from coming in.
According to Smuts Ngonyama, who recently resigned from the ANC and joined Cope, the governing body of the school wouldn't allow about 200 Cope members to gather in the hall.
Members of the governing body are all ANC supporters.
Cope meetings were also disrupted at Hennenman and Heidedal in Bloemfontein and in Verulam, KwaZulu-Natal.
ANC members in Heidedal apparently blocked the entrance to the property where the meeting would be held and blew car horns in the area to disrupt proceedings.
In Phomolong (Hennenman), ANC members occupied the hall where the meeting was to be held. The meeting was disrupted for hours. Police were called in and the tense situation was finally resolved after Mathabo Leeto, executive mayor of Matjhabeng, arrived to negotiate with the ANC supporters.
Lekota said these activities showed that the ANC's claims that it promoted political tolerance were nonsense.
Disruptions 'a favour'
Meanwhile, ANC leader Jacob Zuma told a crowd of 35 000 people in KaMhluswa near Malelane in Mpumalanga, that ANC members should not do Cope the favour of disrupting their meetings. "My view is when we (the ANC) go to their meetings to disrupt them, we increase their popularity."
He said those meetings then made the news, whereas it may normally not have made the news. He emphasised that it was not acceptable for ANC members to disrupt other meetings.
Zuma also said it hurt when the Cope wanted to use names from the ANC's history for their own purposes. Congress of the People referred to a gathering of different movements in 1955, which was organised by the ANC.
Multi-racial party
Mluleki George, treasurer of Cope, said during a recent visit to the North West that he had seen even white farmers joining the party. In the Free State 64 000 people joined the new party and in the Eastern Cape, apparently more than 60 000 joined.
"We aim to be the first truly multi-racial party in which all South Africans are involved," he said.