Zuma must take responsibility for ANC violence
The ANC's attack on DA members in Gugulethu last night and the ANCYL's destruction of toilet enclosures in Makhaza earlier in the day are not isolated incidents. They form part of a pattern of violence, intimidation, dirty tricks and intolerance of opposition.
I will today request a meeting with ANC President Jacob Zuma to bring these and other incidents of intimidation against the DA to his attention. He must speak out against the culture of violence in the ANC, rein in the members of his party and take action against those who try to intimidate other political parties.
Recent events confirm that the ANC is going all out to prevent us from governing according to our mandate and from winning elections in traditional ANC strongholds. They reveal the extent to which the ANC feels threatened and how far it will go to hold on to power.
Recent incidents of violence and intimidation against the DA in recent months include:
- 24 May 2010: The attack on DA members at a public meeting in Gugulethu last night. ANC members had to be dispersed by the police with rubber bullets.
- 24 May 2010: The ANC Youth League destroyed toilet enclosures in Makhaza yesterday after the community had agreed that it wants the City of Cape Town to provide the enclosures.
- 7 December 2009: Police were called in to disperse 50 ANC members who tried to disrupt a DA meeting in Slovo Park, Soshanguve. Tyres were burnt, DA T-shirts were set alight and DA member Solly Msimanga was injured.
- 2 December 2009: DA activist Derrick Love was shot in the neck while erecting posters for a by-election in Atlantis
- 19 October 2009: 30 ANC members disrupted a DA meeting in Kya Sands, Gauteng.
- 14 October 2009: DA Mpumalanga Youth Leader Stanley Zondi received death threats after he exposed the corrupt activities of ANC councillors in Thembisile municipality.
- 1 September 2009: Employees of a company hired by the DA to distribute pamphlets in Mphopheni, KwaZulu-Natal were assaulted by ANC supporters.
- 19 August 2009: DA activists Jerry Rampai and Martha Ngati were pelted with stones by ANC supporters at a public meeting in Tlokwe, North West Province.
- 20 October 2008: ANC members attacked two DA members with pick-axes and burnt down their house in Daveyton on the East Rand.
There is a clear correlation between DA success and ANC violence. Since winning the Western Cape from the ANC in April 2009, the DA has won 6 wards from the ANC in by-elections. The ANC clearly feels threatened by the DA. In its desperation, it will use whatever means necessary to stem the tide.
Jacob Zuma himself has recognised the exponential growth of the DA and the threat it poses to ANC hegemony. At the ANC NEC's meeting earlier this month he called on ANC members to stop giving the opposition space. What he needs to do now is send out the clear and unequivocal message to his party that violence will not be tolerated.
In the meantime, we will continue to build the alternative to the ANC using the peaceful and constitutional means at our disposal. We will show South Africa that there is a better alternative in the way that we campaign and the way that we govern. We will not allow the ANC to stop us from doing this anywhere in the country.
Statement issued by Democratic Alliance leader, Helen Zille, May 25 2010
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