Former ANC provincial chairman James Ngculu has added his voice to the clamour surrounding cabinet spokesman and Black Management Forum president Jimmy Manyi, as the row over racism sparked by Manyi’s remarks spread at the weekend.
Accusing him of being “the champion of base and bane racism”, Ngculu condemned Manyi’s claim that coloured workers were “over-concentrated” in the Western Cape.
Ngculu’s rebuttal of Manyi comes soon after a rebuke from Minister in the Presidency Trevor Manuel in an open letter to Manyi published in the Cape Times.
Manuel attacked the former labour department chief, comparing him to a racist “in the mould of HF Verwoerd” and questioned his struggle credentials.
Manuel also expressed his dismay at the “half-hearted” apology Manyi released through a spokesman two days after the comments were published.
But Ngculu, a former chairman of Parliament’s health portfolio committee, also questioned the motives of Solidarity, the traditionally white labour union, for releasing Manyi’s comments more than a year after they were made.
“Strangely, for almost a year this disreputable statement went unnoticed and unreported. The question is why?” Ngculu asked.
“Then Solidarity, a group of the most backward and irreconcilable white supremacists, perhaps of the same mould as Jimmy Manyi, fished out this statement, gave it publicity.”
Ngculu said with their attack on Manyi, the DA and Solidarity, “these representatives of the old South Africa”, were being allowed to set the agenda of national discourse.
“Both Solidarity and the DA are aware that municipal elections are around the corner and that some parties – especially in the Western Cape – survive on a racial backlash, sometimes subtle and sometimes open, when campaigning,” said Ngculu, who is also a former uMkhonto weSizwe commander.
He said Manyi’s utterances did raise important questions about transformation in the workplace.
“Manyi’s scandalous comments are doubly harmful because some are using them to stem the tide of real transformation and denying the challenges it presents.
“His views should not be used to conceal the known and very real over-representation of whites in senior management positions and access to our universities. Those who do should be treated in the same way as Jimmy Manyi,” said Ngculu.
At the weekend defence ministry advisor Paul Ngobeni accused Manuel of “deliberately targeting” Manyi “in a gangster-like fashion”.
In an open letter to Manuel published in the Sunday Independent, Ngobeni also said Manuel “and a motley crew of coloured politicians have arrogated to yourselves the exclusive monopoly to speak or comment on issues pertaining to coloured people”.
National Press Club chairman Yusuf Abramjee said on Sunday that Manyi had declined two requests to address journalists over the weekend.
Abramjee said he had approached Manyi again on Sunday and received a text message from him, saying that President Jacob Zuma had “called for restraint (around the recent race row). I have to respect that, sorry”.
Former unionist and Cabinet minister Jay Naidoo and Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi have both called for steps against Manyi for his racist utterances, City Press reported on Sunday.
Former ambassador Franklin Sonn and former ANC heavyweight and church leader Allan Boesak also condemned Manyi’s statements.
However, Ngobeni - adviser to Defence and Military Veterans Minister Lindiwe Sisulu and a vocal supporter of Zuma - took up the cudgels on Manyi’s behalf.
In his open letter, Ngobeni said Manuel had targeted Manyi in a “gangster-like fashion” and accused him of “ignorance of the constitution”. Manuel had not reacted to Ngobeni’s letter by late on Sunday.
SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande expressed condemnation of Manyi’s “racially insensitive remarks” after an SACP central committee meeting yesterday,
Nzimande said the SACP wanted to scrap the clauses in the Employment Equity Act amendment bill “that propose an approach to employment equity that is insensitive to diverse regional realities”.
But he warned against being “played” by a “white minority agenda orchestrated by the likes of Solidarity and Afriforum”.
ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu has indicated that the matter will be discussed at the next meeting of the ANC’s national executive committee, expected to take place this coming week. - Cape Times