Johannesburg - Poltical activist Andile Mngxitama launched an attack on TUT (Tshwane University of Technology) FM station manager Jeremy Thorpe as emotions spilt over during a seminar on coalition governments in Pretoria on Friday.
Mngxitama, formerly an EFF member and now leader of Black First, Land First, said Thorpe was a racist who had no place at the event and threw a water bottle at him before advancing threateningly and shouting about his lack of decorum.
“You are an idiot and you have no respect for black people,” Mngxitama said.
Members of the audience and conveners of the seminar rushed to restrain him, with some supporting Mngxitama and others coming to the defence of Thorpe, telling him he had nothing to apologise for.
“Mngxitama is a Gupta apologist and cannot be accusing anyone of anything,” an audience member said as another asked how he could question Mngxitama’s intelligence.
He was restrained and ushered out to the exit still angrily wagging his fingers at Thorpe, and shouting “he insulted Hlaudi” (SABC chief operating officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng).
Mngxitama had said Motsoeneng was among only two black leaders of corporate South Africa who had stood up against the white takeover.
“Hlaudi and (Eskom chief executive Brian) Molefe are the only blacks resisting capture,” he said.
But Thorpe retorted: “I worked for the SABC and I know him to be an idiot.”
At this point Mngxitama charged towards Thorpe, who was sitting in the audience, saying: “You are a hopeless racist who should not be teaching. Shut up. Shut up, shut up”.
He threw the water bottle at Thorpe.
Mngxitama was giving his concluding remarks at a seminar, making sense of coalition politics in South Africa, and was on the panel with the DA’s Stevens Mokgalapa and Women Justice Foundation founder Magdalene Moonsamy.
The seminar was hosted by the South African Association of Public Administrations in conjunction with the Pretoria News. The three spoke to a full house of students, young and old political activists and people in academia.
They gave their views on the current environment in the aftermath of the local government elections.
“The ANC and EFF have let us black people down badly, and it is a sad day that 22 years after democracy, we sit and listen to the DA,” Mngxitama said.
He said the party would not share the city's economic wealth with their black voters.
“They will give you RDP houses and some grants, but they will never let you in on the structural economy of the city.”
But Mokgalapala said they had every intention of uplifting the lives of everyone in the city.
“It has been proven that we are capable of doing that,” he said, citing the successes of the DA-run Western Cape. But his presentation was continually disrupted by sections in the audience, who rejected and loudly discounted everything he said.
He was told to fix Cape Town townships before attempting to care for the people of Tshwane.
Mokgalapala’s attempts at responding to questions were characterised by loud noises and calls to sit down and not talk about the ANC, among other topics.
A furore erupted when he thanked “clever blacks” for voting for the DA.
“They knew the value of their vote and refused to be held hostage by the previous administration,” he said, before being accused of inferring that there were “stupid” blacks who had not voted.
Moonsamy capitalised on that.
“That is racist,” she said.
“That the DA divided people along those lines was a sign of the subtle innuendos of racism perpetuated by the party.”
Members of the audience clashed briefly as the seminar was closed after the attack.
They took sides, some for Mngxitama and others against him.
But many agreed such seminars were necessary because they provided an opportunity to address issues and thrash them out together.
Saturday Star