Focus on core issues facing SA, not historical distortions
14 February 2019
The Ahmed Kathrada Foundation is disappointed by recent statements made by Congress of the People (COPE) leader Mosiuoa Lekota, and the South African Community Party’s (SACP) Second Deputy General Secretary, Solly Mapaila.
Lekota, speaking at the State of the Nation (SONA) debate in Parliament, suggested that President Cyril Ramaphosa was a sellout who had betrayed his fellow anti-apartheid activists in the 1970s, with Ramaphosa subsequently being released from detention, while Lekota and others were jailed on Robben Island.
At a separate event at Lileasleaf Farm commemorating the Rivonia Trialists, and in a subsequent interview, Mapaila suggested that Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) leader, Robert Sobukwe, was accorded privileged treatment on Robben Island, and therefore colluded with the apartheid system.
The Foundation’s Executive Director, Neeshan Balton, said, “It’s astonishing that historical distortions of this nature can be perpetuated. The comments by both Lekota and Mapaila are unwarranted and come across as being malicious. They are a distraction from the core issues besetting the country currently.”