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DA to report EFF’s Malema to Equality Court for hate speech

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Dear MyPE

The DA condemns in the strongest terms the comments made by EFF Leader, Julius Malema, that “[w]e are going to remove a mayor of PE […] [w]e are going for your white man in PE. We are going to cut the throat” referring to DA Nelson Mandela Bay (NMB) Mayor, Athol Trollip.

Malema’s statements are nothing short of hate speech and go as far as an incitement to violence. While these kinds of vile and bigoted statements have come to characterise the EFF and its Leader, they have no place in South Africa and only undermines our constitutional democracy.

The DA will report Malema to the Equality Court in terms of Section 10 of the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act, which states that “no person may publish, propagate, advocate or communicate words based on one or more of the prohibited grounds, against any person, that could reasonably be construed to demonstrate a clear intention to: (a) be hurtful; (b) be harmful or to incite harm; [and] (c) promote or propagate hatred”.

Furthermore, the EFF’s threat to remove the Mayor Trollip from the helm of NMB is a clear case of the EFF cutting off its nose to spite its face. Malema himself stated that the move to get rid of Mayor Trollip is not “because he stole the money or anything” or in an effort to improve the lives of the people in NMB.

The fact is that the EFF is willing to sacrifice the delivery of services and hand over NMB to the same corrupt and ineffective ANC the people of Port Elizabeth voted out of power.

The only people who will suffer the consequences of the EFF’s cheap politicking will be the residents of NMB. The EFF is effectively attempting to reverse all the good work the DA-led coalition has done, and hand NMB back to the ANC on a silver platter.

Under the DA-led coalition, NMB has made huge strides by:

  • Exposing the ANC’s corruption, by recovering millions of rands through freezing corrupt contracts;
  • Stabilising the metro’s administration by appointing executive directors;
  • Introducing a Metro Police;
  • Connecting over 12 000 residents to running water and toilets for the first time; and
  • Creating 8 000 Expanded Public Works (EPWP) job.

The EFF’s threats to remove Mayor Trollip is not in the best interest of the people of NMB but only serves to boost their populist agenda.

Malema, on Wednesday, accused the DA of not “appreciating the pain that comes with the brutal land dispossession”. This is a blatant attempt by Malema to distort the DA’s commitment to redressing the history of violent land dispossession of black South Africans.

The EFF’s policy of land reform will not serve those who have been disposed of land. Their proposal will mean that all land, no matter who owns it, will be given to the State.

The DA is completely committed to land reform policies which will enable the poor and marginalised to access and truly own land, and not a policy which will undermine economic prosperity.

The DA will not be held ransom by the EFF’s attempts to get back into bed with the ANC.

Regards

Refiloe Nt’sekhe MPL
DA National Spokesperson

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Port Elizabethan

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