Cape Town - The EFF in the Western Cape laid a complaint with the Equality Court against DA leader and Western Cape premier Helen Zille, and President Jacob Zuma on Friday.
Economic Freedom Fighters provincial spokeswoman Yerushka Chetty said the party believed the leaders were to blame for gross human rights violations and racism against black people.
“The post-1994 Western Cape government has served the corporate elite class and failed to serve in the interests of the black majority,” she said in a statement.
“This goes against the commitment to the fundamental rights and freedoms as contained in the Constitution and equality legislation such as the right to life, equality and dignity.”
DA Western Cape leader Ivan Meyer dismissed the EFF's complaint as “the silliest election gimmick of the election campaign thus far.”
The presidency said it noted the statement.
Chetty said in 2004, heads of member states of the African Union (AU) reaffirmed their commitment to gender equality, and agreed to a number of measures to secure women's rights including in the spheres of health, housing, education and land ownership.
The EFF believed these agreements were honoured for South African white women, but not their black counterparts.
“The Head of State of South Africa Jacob Zuma and Helen Zille as leader of the DA, are bound by the terms of the... agreement as well as the terms of every regional, continental and international instrument on human and women's rights that South Africa is a signatory to.
“...Both Jacob Zuma and Helen Zille are accordingly criminally responsible for the status of black women...”
The EFF asked that Zuma and Zille be found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment.
“Furthermore we ask that both accused persons pay reparations for the harm suffered by the victims of the said human rights violations and to this end that all the assets and property of both accused be attached and sold in execution.”
Meyer described the EFF's complaint as “laughable” and that the DA did not take it seriously.
“We are working hard to make life better for everyone in the places where we govern.
“In the Western Cape, where we govern, unemployment is lowest, access to water, sanitation and electricity is best.”
According to the department of justice website, once a complaint is lodged with the Equality Court, the clerk of the court has seven days to notify the subjects of the complaint, and they have 10 days to reply.
The court's presiding officer then has seven days to decide whether the matter would be heard by the Equality Court or refer it to another forum, such as the SA Human Rights Commission.
Sapa