SA Human Rights Commission has a role in building One SA for All

4 February 2019

Today, the DA Youth Leader, Luyolo Mphithi, launched a petition on the University of the Free State campus.

This petition follows the DA’s complaint to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) on the basis that the BLF spokesperson, Lindsay Maasdorp who tweeted that the tragic deaths of the young children at Hoërskool Driehoek "should be celebrated" as it showed that "God is listening". It is appalling that the BLF spokesperson saw it fit to use the deaths of children as an opportunity to stir up racial hatred.

It is not the first time a member of the BLF has made abhorrent and racist comments of this nature. Previously, the BLF leader Andile Mngxitama stated in reference to white people "They kill one of us, we will kill five white people. We will kill their children, we will kill the women, we will kill anything that we find on our way...we kill their dogs, we kill their cats, we kill anything that comes before us.”

It is clear that the BLF has no interest in building One South Africa for All, their only interest is in dividing the country along racial lines, and spreading hate even to the extent of celebrating the deaths of innocent children.

It is concerning to the DA Youth that the SAHRC is seemingly slow in their processing and investigation of cases referred to them. In June 2018 we reported the EFF for similar racial utterances. The EFF leader, Julius Malema stated: that “[the] majority of Indians are racist, and we must never be scared to say that. They are racist [...] The same thing applies to so some of the coloured brothers”.

The SAHRC must understand that they have a pivotal role to play as we head into this election campaign where we have seen a rise of racial nationalism from both political extremes.

The petition we have launched today is to implore South Africans to join in our call for the BLF to be barred from contesting the national elections, should they be found to have violated the electoral code of conduct. However, in order for this to be successful, the SAHRC must expedite this investigation and we will submit their report to the IEC, along with our petition, for further determination of whether any code of conduct has been violated.

According to Section 9 (1)(a) of the Electoral Code of Conduct, “no registered party or candidate may, (a) use language or act in a way that may provoke (i) violence during an election; or (ii) the intimidation of […] voters". Furthermore, Section 9(1)(d) prohibits discrimination “on the grounds of race, ethnicity, sex, gender, class or religion in connection with an election or political activity".

Our view that an organisation like the BLF which calls for people to be murdered and celebrates the death of children because they happen to be white, has no place in a democratic country like ours. The SAHRC must produce their report, expedite their investigation and findings which we will submit to the IEC for further investigation.

The BLF wants to take South Africa back to a place of hatred and division. The DA has been clear that we need to build One South Africa for All. The pursuit of such requires leadership and difficult decisions to be made. We cannot allow anyone to take us back to our dark history at any cost.

Issued by Luyolo Mphithi, DA Youth Leader, 4 February 2019