ANC, DA clash at Easter march

Published Apr 24, 2011

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A church’s Easter weekend march to highlight the plight of township residents turned into a confrontation between DA and ANC supporters on Saturday, leading to the burning of a DA T-shirt and posters.

ANC supporters accused the DA of hijacking the march by handing out party T-shirts during the 13.5km march along Lansdowne Road from Gugulethu to Khayelitsha’s Site B.

When ANC supporters sang struggle songs, DA members retaliated by singing their own.

“This is unnecessary, they came to hijack the march,” said one ANC supporter. “What have they done for us in the townships while they are ruling the city?”

Pastor Xola Skosana of the Way of Life Church, who managed to defuse tensions, said the DA members had been ill advised to wear party T-shirts at a religious march.

“It only provoked people along the route,” he said. “This was not a DA march. They should have known better.”

He said the idea had been to mark the Easter weekend with a march to show people that the church was highlighting the plight of township residents.

We march to associate ourselves as a church with the struggle for justice and human dignity in our townships,” he said, adding that people needed to move beyond party political differences and tackle the real issues at hand.

Marchers held aloft a huge poster reading: “Welcome to hell – SA townships”. Others carried placards reading: “Andries Tatane your death shall not be in vain”. Some vented their anger at DA leader Helen Zille and Western Cape Human Settlements MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela on posters that read: “Helen is the coz of da hell” and “Madikizela is a gang leader. He is unfit”.

DA member Andile Dube said: “We were invited to this march. This is a democracy… We are also affected by the conditions and have every right to march.”

He said ANC supporters had been intolerant, pushing and shoving DA members.

“It was not necessary to burn DA T-shirts. It was completely uncalled for,” he said.

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