Political intolerance reared its ugly head in Mamelodi on Tuesday when a group of ANC supporters tried to stop a DA Freedom Day rally at Solomon Mahlangu Freedom Square in the township.
The group was upset that the DA had held a rally at the venue where the statue of “our Struggle hero” was erected.
Tshwane Metro Police and SAPS officers had to intervene, preventing the group from getting close to where the stage had been erected on the western side of the square. The group taunted black DA supporters, saying “anyone who votes for a white party is insane and should be lynched”.
They claimed that Mahlangu had been murdered by the “apartheid National Party government” and that the DA was part of that system.
The group stated that the Mahlangu Square was their turf and that the DA had intruded.
They later “cleaned” Mahlangu’s statue to rid it of the “DA dirt”, using a T-shirt with President Jacob Zuma’s face on it.
Some members in the group claimed that the DA did not have permission from the Tshwane Metro Council to stage the Freedom Day rally on the square. They later changed their tune when the metro police produced proof that permission had indeed been granted to the party.
An unperturbed Zille – who was joined on stage by senior DA members, including Tshwane mayoral candidate Brandon Topham, Joburg mayoral candidate Mmusi Maimane and MPs Sej Motau, Stevens Mokgalapa and Natasha Michael – said apartheid was an “an often violent affront to the very notion of humanity”.
Zille said Mahlangu fought for a better South Africa and that his death had been unnecessary.
“His death came at the time when the country was at war with itself. This was an unnecessary war and we should say that never and never again will there be oppression in this country,” she said.
Zille said South Africa had a constitution and because of this, it was not necessary to remove people (government) by force.
“We have the vote… each one of us has a vote we can use to remove the government. We do not have to resort to violence or force to remove people,” she said.
“By degrading some of us, it degraded us all. Oppression is always driven by the worst instincts of human kind – greed, fear, hatred. It is sustained by a callous indifference to the suffering of others”.
Zille said whenever she paused for a moment and remembered, she could feel the atmosphere that had enveloped the country in the 1960s, 70s and 80s.
“I remember the long shadow violence cast, hovering over the land like a funeral shroud, burying our hopes and our dreams for a better future. But today (Freedom Day) is also a day to remember those who resisted the inhumanity of oppression,” Zille said. - Pretoria News