Cape Town - A passionate call by ANC Youth League (ANCYL) general secretary Njabulo Nzuza for “our land back” was cheered at the end of a march to the Remgro group head office in Stellenbosch on Friday.
While handing a memorandum to John Waterford, a representative from Johann Rupert’s office, Nzuza said: “If you do not surrender, we will come here in more numbers and cause more problems and destructions.
“Today we are here because of the inequality that is advocated by the white supremacy people who think that white people are better than black people. Today is the last day that we must be insulted. All we want is our land back and we will get it by force or negotiation.”
The marchers, from the ANCYL, the Black First Land First (BLF) movement and the MK Inkululeko Foundation, blockaded the entrance to Remgro with placards reading: “Rupert and his family are apartheid benefactors.”
Waterford accepted two of the three memorandums, saying the BLF was not recognised as being part of the approved march.
The march, heavily guarded by police, ended with angry BLF members wanting to break down the Remgro gates because their memo had not been accepted.
Singing and dancing down the street, the group of about 300 people left a trail of Unilever products, saying “White monopoly capital will fall and it will fall in our lifetime”.
Unilever is a subsidiary of Remgro. The group's offices were closed for business on Friday, with staff asked to work from home or at other Distell premises.
The march followed a statement by Remgro group chairperson Rupert earlier this month that “the radical economic transformation policy of the ANC is a code word for theft”.
Inkululeko Foundation head Sparks Motseki said marchers had come from as far as Gauteng to demand a public apology from Rupert.
“We are giving him seven days to publicly apologise, failing which we will proceed with legal proceedings. Our lawyers are currently drawing up papers to drag him to court.”
The foundation said Rupert’s statement was “not conducive to a positive socio-economic transformation that is desperately needed in South Africa, has a potential of scaring foreign investment and is divisive and undermines government efforts to redress injustices and inequalities”.
ANCYL member Reza Hamdulay said: “We are hoping to confront the arrogance of Rupert. We demand an apology from Rupert for rubbishing our movement. The ANC is bigger than an individual and Rupert is an individual.
“There will be more marches as the youth league continues to rebuild and unite. We are not here to only push Rupert but also to push the ANC to be more harsh on our economic policies.”