EFF rejects the Commonwealth and will not form part of the Parliament's delegation to the 62nd Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference for 2016 in London
2 December, 2016
The EFF rejects the Commonwealth and will not form part of the South African Parliament's delegation to the 62nd Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference 2016. This 2016 session is taking place from 11 - 17 December, 2016 and the 5th Democratic parliament is yet again sending a delegation. The Commonwealth is an association convened by the British Monarchy which, in stead of taking full responsibility for its crimes of genocide, colonisation and anti-black racism, continued to express influence over its former colonies through this institution. It is an association that is made in the assumption that all former British colonies must continue to associate together with their former coloniser post-independence due to shared history and culture.
We reject this association and we reject the British monarchy and the history it represents. We refuse to be convinced by the British Queen in the name of the fact that she used to be our coloniser. The British monarchy must not enjoy the world's recognition taken the pain it has caused across the world through the brutal crime of colonisation. The British monarchy should be ashamed of itself, or even of still existing taken the crimes against humanity it has caused as an institution. The wealth and benefits of colonialism are still found in Britain and many free nations attend the commonwealth programs to continue to salute and normalise the evil monarchy and its queen who even has the audacity to give keynote addresses.
We have no illusions about the past and do not suffer inferiority complex by always seeking recognition and approval from an institution that deployed brutal violence against our dignity, based on the history of racism, genocide and unspeakable crimes against humanity. In 2002, this very body, the Commonwealth, suspended the participation of Zimbabwe because the Zimbabweans took back their land from the white colonialists. This was clear indication that the Commonwealth is a guard of white colonial and racist interests.
The EFF therefore calls on the African continent and all other former British colonies to reject the British monarchy by refusing to be convened by it in the Commonwealth. The British monarchy must fall and be decimated into the same dustbin of history where all institutions and states that perpetuated crimes against humanity belong. This is the same dustbin of history that contains regimes like those of Hitler, Idi Amin, Mabuto Seseko, Mussolini, the French Monarchy, King Leopold, and Apartheid - amongst all these, the British Monarchy takes the crown and thus it must fall, together with its Commonwealth.
Issued by Mbuyiseni Quintin Ndlozi, National Spokesperson, 2 December 2016
