SOUTH AFRICA: ANC reins in its militant youth leader over racial inflammatory song

Record ID: 452457

  • Title: SOUTH AFRICA: ANC reins in its militant youth leader over racial inflammatory song
  • Date: 8th April 2010
  • Summary: JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA (APRIL 7, 2010) (REUTERS) NEWS CONFERENCE JOURNALISTS DURING NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) SECRETARY GENERAL, AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS, GWEDE MANTASHE, SAYING: "The message that we have communicated to all our structures including Malema himself as the president of the youth league, is that restrain yourself, don't put yourself in a position where you become scapegoats for other agendas. That is the message that we have sent to him, we have sent it to him, we have sent it to other structures." MORE OF JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (English) SECRETARY GENERAL, AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS, GWEDE MANTASHE, SAYING: "Nobody must put pressure on us and want to have an instant solution, because our view is that this hysteria about whether we met Malema yesterday, and told him specifically not to sing this song. It's a hysteria that is actually short-sighted, narrow and will not help us find solutions." ANC OFFICIALS JOURNALIST HOLDING ANC MEDIA STATEMENT ANC BANNER
  • Embargoed: 23rd April 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: South Africa
  • Country: South Africa
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA7WFY068XQ3VQX13MGC8LTSX3P
  • Story Text: South Africa's ruling African National Congress has restrained its militant youth leader and other structures of the party to stop singing racial inflammatory songs, the party's secretary general said in a news conference on Wednesday (April 7).
    This comes in the wake of the murder of white supremacist Eugene Terre'blanche on Saturday (April 3).
    Terre'blanche's Afrikaner Resistance Movement and mainstream opposition parties have linked the killing to sentiment fuelled by president of the ANC Youth League, Julius Malema and his singing of a song from the era of the struggle against apartheid with the words "Shoot the Boer".
    Secretary-General Gwede Mantashe said ANC structures had been asked to be circumspect in singing songs "that have words that can be seen and interpreted to be contributing to racial polarisation of society".
    "The message that we have communicated to all our structures including Malema himself as the president of the youth league, is that restrain yourself, don't put yourself in a position where you become scapegoats for other agendas. That is the message that we have sent to him, we have sent it to him, we have sent it to other structures," said Mantashe.
    "Nobody must put pressure on us and want to have an instant solution, because our view is that this hysteria about whether we met Malema yesterday, and told him specifically not to sing this song. It's a hysteria that is actually short-sighted, narrow and will not help us find solutions," he added.
    The ANC has rejected any link between the song and the murder, but President Jacob Zuma has appealed for calm two months before South Africa is due to host the soccer World Cup.
    Terre'blanche, who fought to preserve white rule in the 1990s, was hacked and battered to death on Saturday in what police believe was a dispute over pay with two black farm workers. They were charged with his murder on Tuesday (April 06).
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register