AfriForum to use ANC settlement against Xingwana
Delegates at AfriForum's first National Congress today unanimously accepted a motion indicating that the settlement that was reached between AfriForum and the ANC last year, should be applied to take up the continued offensive utterances made by senior ANC officials directed at Afrikaners and Christians with the national leadership of the ANC.
This motion includes that the apology made by Lulu Xingwana, minister for women, children and people with disabilities for the offensive remark she made against Afrikaner men and their "calvinistic religion" is not satisfactory, as it has not been followed up by any further steps. "Xingwana's utterances should be seen in the broader ANC context," Ernst Roets, Deputy CEO of AfriForum said. "Her remark is, as a matter of fact, just one offensive utterance in a series of utterances made recently by senior ANC leaders against Afrikaners and even Christians."
In December 2011 President Jacob Zuma said that the lack in humanitarianism in communities could be attributed to the arrival of Christianity and the Bible to South Africa. In May 2011 the former president of the ANC Youth League, Julius Malema said, in President Zuma presence, that all white people are criminals and that they should be treated as such. Malema was never reprimanded about this and no steps were taken against him.
"Any attempt of the ANC to promote peaceful co-existence boils down to lip service as long as these types of utterances continue in their ranks. We are no longer dealing with individuals who say irresponsible things, but with a discriminatory organisational culture in the ANC," Roets said.
The settlement that was reached in 2012 in the "Shoot the Boer"-case include, amongst others, that the parties in the settlement commit themselves to continued formal dialogue in order to promote mutual understanding for their respective cultural heritage and aspirations. This settlement was made an order by the Supreme Court of Appeal and has binding dominion on all the parties involved.
- A total of 10 motions have been accepted by delegates at the Congress. Most of them relate to projects that will be driven by local branches of AfriForum across the country. A motion relating to an intensified campaign against farm attacks on local level has also been accepted, of which the details will be announced at a later stage. AfriForum's National Congress is the first of its kind and is attended by representatives of AfriForum's 106 local branches from across South Africa.
Statement issued by Ernst Roets, Deputy CEO, AfriForum, March 10 2013
Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter
