Cape Town - DA Western Cape leader Bonginkosi Madikizela says he supports the George Municipality’s about-turn allowing Afrikaans singer Steve Hofmeyr to perform at the town hall.
Madikizela said a school hired a hall from George Municipality for a fund-raising concert.
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“When some people heard Steve Hofmeyr would be performing, they put pressure on the municipality to cancel the booking. This was brought to my attention on Friday. I called the mayor to establish the facts around George Municipality’s decision to cancel the booking. When I heard it was because of Steve Hofmeyr I advised against that decision,” he said.
“I don’t share his views and I’ll never attend any of his concerts. But we can’t make such decisions on the basis of our personal feelings about individuals.
“We are a party that respects freedom of choice and association enshrined in our constitution, we can’t deny people the space to express their views just because we disagree with them - that’s exactly what the apartheid government used to do. That’s why I believe Steve Hofmeyr’s concert should be allowed to continue.”
Municipal manager Trevor Botha said: “The municipality reconsidered its decision to cancel the booking to hire the town hall for a fund-raising event on March 22, which may go ahead as planned.”
ANC provincial secretary Faiez Jacobs said: “We call on the George Municipality to immediately cancel this concert, disassociate themselves from Hofmeyr in the way other sponsors like Pick * Pay, Land Rover and Absa have done in the past. No sphere of people’s government should ever associate itself with this racist white supremacist and his crass and crude convictions.
“The country has always been alarmed and disgusted by Hofmeyr’s racist demonstrations, racist slogans and misguided Afrikaner nationalism which see Afrikaners as superior and the indignity blacks suffered at their hands.”
Hofmeyr’s booking agent, Leeza Mulder, did not respond to questions sent to her.
@JasonFelix