ANC 'not at war' with DA, IFP
2003-09-12 15:52
Cape Town - The African National Congress says opposition leaders Tony Leon and Mangosuthu Buthelezi have stooped to lies and manufactured crises to lobby support.
ANC spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama said of the joint parliamentary caucus held by Leon's Democratic Alliance and
Buthelezi's Inkatha Freedom Party: "We have never regarded our relationship with the opposition parties as anything resembling a war.
"The analogy being drawn by the DA is reminiscent of their fight-back campaign which, no doubt, has strong racial undertones, and seeking to distort the context of our revolution, starting from the wars of dispossession which were meant to unite people of our country."
Ngonyama appeared to be reacting to Leon having told about 80 MPs the DA and IFP had "come together in a classic
horn formation, advancing on two separate flanks" towards achieving the common goal of positive change in South Africa.
Ngonyama said Leon and Buthelezi "need to wake up and smell the roses, and realise it is the majority of South Africans that chose to elect the ANC as a ruling party".
"The conspiracy theories suggesting the existence of a
one-party state and the death of democracy are scare tactics that do not warrant attention."
'Pursuing a suspect agenda'
He was reacting to Buthelezi's notion that South Africa was "an embryonic one-party state" and unless voters in next year's national election were given an alternative, the ANC's stranglehold on power would increase.
Ngonyama said: "It is... not surprising these leaders have chosen the path of being doomsday prophets, rather than throw their weight behind the development and reconstruction of this country.
"This confirms the suspect agenda they are pursuing - that of taking this country to a position where minority privilege remains entrenched and the vast majority remain second-class
citizens."