Outraged by the racist utterances of Magashule
15 April 2019
The outrageous utterances of Ace Magashule, ANC SG, in Phillipi on Saturday (13 April, 2019), inciting ANC supporters to exercise their vote in a racist way, is completely unacceptable. As far as we are concerned, these are the utterance of an individual and cannot be construed as the utterances of the ANC by any stretch of the imagination. The ANC Constitution is our lodestar. We are proud members of the ANC, “a non-racial and non-sexist and democratic liberation movement.” Our Constitution behoves us “to unite all the people of South Africa, Africans in particular, for the complete liberation of the country from all forms of discrimination and national oppression.”
The utterances by someone occupying the office of SG, exhorting masses of poor black people not to vote for “umlungu”, are utterly alien to the core principles and character of the ANC and its mission to build a nation free of prejudice, poverty and exploitation.
Employing racial tropes at an ANC election event is abhorrent and must be inconsistent with what the ANC stands for.
It saddens us to see that his conduct makes him indistinguishable from the racial nativists who have emerged during the years of state capture, those who cruelly exploit the hardships of our people through racial scapegoating to deflect attention from their own misdemeanours and criminal conduct.