Cyril’s comments irresponsible - Cope

Published Nov 12, 2013

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Johannesburg -

Congress of the People (Cope) leader Mosiuoa Lekota on Monday said comments by ANC deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa that “boers” would return to power if people didn’t vote for the ANC showed shameful disregard for the constitution.

“Ramaphosa’s statement that the ‘boers’ will return to rule if people don’t vote for the ANC is a shameful disregard to our constitutional democracy and it underestimates the intelligence of South Africans,” he said in a statement.

Lekota accused the ANC leaders of being the ones advancing laws similar to the apartheid era, with legislation to protect state secrets and national keypoints.

“It is irresponsible of Ramaphosa to agitate racial hatred amongst the people of our country in pursuit of votes. We never expected such disregard for the constitution... by the very man who contributed in writing that constitution,” the Cope leader said.

The Star reported on Monday that Ramaphosa had urged Limpopo residents to vote, or the “boers” would take back power.

“If you don't vote, the boers will come back to control us,” Ramaphosa apparently said in Seshego.

He was speaking to disgruntled resident Johanna Phala, 49, who had vowed not to vote in next year's elections because the ANC had disappointed her.

The unemployed single mother of three blamed the high unemployment rate on the ANC and said she had lost hope in the party.

Ramaphosa asked her to reconsider her anger towards the ANC-led government.

He was in Seshego, the hometown of Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema, to drum up party support.

“If all South Africans don't vote, we will regress. The boers will come back to control us,” Ramaphosa was quoted as saying.

Lekota said if Ramaphosa's statements were the final card which the party could play, to pit black and white against one another, they had exposed themselves as bankrupt contenders with nothing else to offer than fear.

Earlier, the Democratic Alliance said the statements showed how much Ramaphosa was stuck in the dark ages.

“The ANC is panicking, which is why even people like Cyril Ramaphosa are using the race card,” DA spokesman Mmusi Maimane said in a statement.

“As Jacob Zuma's ANC sees its power slipping, it appeals more and more to tired racial insinuations and the supernatural to convince supporters to stick with them.

“First it was the fires of hell. Now it is the ghosts of the apartheid regime that are being invoked to scare voters into staying with a party that deserted them a long time ago,” Maimane said.

He said the politics of fear should make way for a new politics of hope.

The Freedom Front Plus called Ramaphosa's comments racist.

“Apart from the fact that such a statement is not based on any real facts, it is also racist and polarising,” FF Plus leader Pieter Mulder said in a statement.

“It is clear from this how deep in trouble the ANC is with its impatient voters. Because Mr Ramaphosa is second in charge of the ANC, these remarks cannot be lightly dismissed.” - Sapa

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