ANC rejects Zuma complaint
2012-02-25 20:20
Johannesburg - The ANC has rejected the attempt by rightwing group, Gelofte Volk, to lay a complaint of hate speech against President Jacob Zuma.
"It has become fashionable that unknown and unrepresentative rightwing fringe organisations... try and draw attention to themselves by using our president and our struggle history," African National Congress spokesperson Jackson Mthembu said in a statement on Saturday.
"Their claim that seeks of vilify our historic heritage and to project it as a source of hate will not go unchallenged because our history cannot be explained differently or in a manner that will satisfy those who wish it away."
Gelofte Volk leader Andre Visagie laid the complaint at the Human Rights Commission in Johannesburg on Friday.
The first charge was for Zuma's singing "the forbidden song", dubul' ibhunu (shoot the boer) at the ANC's centenary celebrations in Bloemfontein on January 11.
The second was against the ministry of police for allegedly failing to intervene at the trial of Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) leader Eugene Terre'blanche's killers, when black people held up signs saying "boere word gebleksem" (sic).
Farmers
The third charge related to the ANC government's "failure" to employ a special force to protect farmers after the dissolution of military commandos.
Mthembu denied that Zuma sang the dubul' ibhunu song during the ANC's centenary celebrations.
"We want to restate the facts that in Mangaung during the centennial celebrations, President Zuma did not sing the song that is banned by the Gauteng High Court... [the song] that we are currently challenging."
He warned against the "polarisation" of the South African society that the charges could bring.
"We find their assertion that President Zuma is not their president and that he is anti-whites absurd and unfortunate," he said.
"The ANC has and will continue to champion non-racialism in this country and will not be deterred by anybody or organisation that [wans]t to take this country back to colonial and apartheid rule."
Visagie said he hoped the case would draw international media attention because "we are killed in this country just because we have white skins".
The Gelofte Volk (People of the Covenant) was founded by Visagie, the AWB's former general secretary.
- SAPA