Durban - The African National Congress has accused the Democratic Alliance of "driving propaganda that can fuel race tensions" in KwaZulu-Natal.
This comes after the DA claimed that KZN premier, Willies Mchunu, made anti-Indian remarks during a Heritage Day celebrations debate. According to DA KZN leader, Zwakele Mncwango, Mchunu said; "Indians were not part of South Africa."
The Mercury reported that Mchunu's comments came after a DA MPL had been delivering remarks on the need to protect Indian subsistence fishermen. The Mercury said that the DA further furnished a video clip on which Mchunu made the remarks, however no such utterances were heard on the clip.
A portion of the article that appeared in The Mercury.
In response, ANC chief whip, Nontembeko Nothemba Boyce, the DA's stunt simply aims to distort what was said.
Boyce accused the DA of trying to divert attention from the question of land.
“They failed to rise to the heritage debate and are now picking up stompies to sow confusion and spread race hate and division. Premier Mchunu had to remind the DA of our powerful non-racial activism by the ANC and Natal Indian Congress over the past 70 years," she said.
She added that the ANC had a long history in the Indian communities and activists.
“We will not allow the distortion of our history for shallow political opportunism. The assurance from the ANC is that our future is that as Africans, Indians, Coloureds and Whites, is together as one nation,” she said.
Boyce said the ANC acknowledges the faults that exist in society and they were working on programmes to build the country and unite the people of the country.
“We as the caucus are not going to be distracted by DA in our mission to conduct oversight over the government. We will within the Legislature Standing Rules address this distortion of
an official debate of the House. We will not allow the DA to use the same tactic of dividing our people that were used back in 1994 ahead of the first democratic elections,” she said.