ANC DISTURBED BY FF PLUS "ANTI MALEMA CAMPAIGN"

The African National Congress is concerned about the launching of a campaign, yesterday (18 March 2010) by the Freedom Front Plus against the ANC Youth League President, Julius Malema, which is meant to incite the South African populace, particularly the Afrikaaner community, against the President of the Youth League (see here).

This campaign poses a danger to the personal safety and security of cde Malema.  As the ANC, we draw the conclusion that it is meant to incite, instigate and mobilise some people to harm and even lead to the execution the ANC YL President.

The Freedom front's repeated lie that a song sung by the ANC Youth League President on various occasions has led to death of some farmers, is a clear deliberate ploy on their side to mobilise the farming community and their next of kin not to hesitate in causing harm to the Youth League President. It is our view that if the Freedom Front believes in their own lies, they would have approached the law enforcement authorities and reported such. Their failure to report this matter is indicative that even the Freedom Front does not believe in what it claims.

The ANC will be approaching the Equality Court for recourse on this matter, because we view this campaign as indicative of hate speech meant to endanger and pose a threat to the well-being and safety of cde Julius Malema. We have already instructed our lawyers to file papers with the Equality Court, on this matter, with immediate effect.

We are also more concerned when this campaign against Julius Malema is looked from a perspective where a senior ANC leader in the name of Chris Hani, was gunned down by some rightwing elements in the early nineties.  The ANC would not like a repeat of what happened to Chris Hani to happen to Julius Malema.

Statement issued by Jackson Mthembu, ANC National Spokesperson, March 19 2010

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