Raj joins Manyi row

Cabinet spokesman Jimmy Manyi's many assurances fall on deaf ears.

Cabinet spokesman Jimmy Manyi's many assurances fall on deaf ears.

Published Mar 3, 2011

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Jimmy Manyi was not only a racist but had a “warped mind”, Minority Front leader Amichand (“the Raj”) Rajbansi has said.

It was of no use for the ANC to “praise the Indian community to the heavens” during election periods, only to dump them later, he said.

“The quality of democracy throughout the world is measured on how the majority treats its minorities,” Rajbansi said.

“Like me, Trevor Manuel has seen the racist anti-minority mentality.

“The Minority Front wants the ANC to know that it cannot sweeten the Indian community or display one or two ministers or tenderpreneurs,” Rajbansi said.

eThekwini deputy mayor Logie Naidoo said Manyi’s comments – if he did make them – could not be defended.

It was not ANC policy to say there was an over-representation of coloureds in the Western Cape or of Indians in KwaZulu-Natal, Naidoo said.

Manyi’s alleged comments “lacked sensitivity”, “were not good for nation-building” and “must be condemned”, he said.

Ashwin Trikamjee, a Durban attorney and president of the South African Hindu Maha Sabha, said his reaction to Manyi’s comments about Indians were no different to those of Manuel about coloureds.

The remarks were “racist”, he said.

Any attack on a minority group in the country was “totally against the constitution” and unacceptable, Trikamjee said. - The Mercury

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