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Taking SA for a ride

IF IT is indeed true that the ANC bussed in its 200-odd supporters to parliament this week to confront members of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), it won’t take long before this gets replicated throughout the country.

And this means South Africa should brace itself for yet another round of political violence similar to the one that engulfed the country in the years running up to the first all-race elections in 1994.

In some parts of the country it is believed that the ANC started the violence between it and Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) supporters in the 1980s because it is an organisation that is very intolerant of opposition.

Of course the ANC denies that it started the territorial war with the IFP in the East Rand, KwaZulu-Natal, Soweto and the Vaal Triangle townships of Sebokeng, Sharpeville, Boipatong and Evaton, among others.

However, the events of last week in parliament prove otherwise.

This week, the EFF accused the ANC of organising "hooligans" to attack its MPs outside parliament.

"Today members of the ANC were reportedly singing 'shoot Malema' in scores outside parliament demanding to be allowed into the chambers," EFF spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi told Sapa.

But this was denied by Stone Sizani, the ANC chief whip, who dismissed claims as "laughable and desperate".

"Such a claim can only be an invention of an overzealous imagination and an uncreative publicity strategy probably aimed at diverting attention from real acts of hooliganism that took place in parliament [last] Thursday," he said in a statement.

Sizani said the ANC has been encouraging the public for years to visit parliament and observe proceedings.

"They have always done this peacefully," he said, responding to claims that the public gallery in parliament was unusually packed to the rafters on Wednesday when Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed the National Council of Province.

Could this be Zuma's undoing?

This statement clearly underpins talk that the ANC has been taking South Africans - including the majority that voted for them - as idiots who cannot think properly for themselves.

Many believe this could be the undoing of the ANC and President Jacob Zuma.

Does Sizani think South Africans did not see the footage flighted on TV last Wednesday, when members of the ANC wanted to storm parliament to pick a fight with EFF members who were left inside the chambers?

It was there for the whole country to see. Does he think South Africans have forgotten this shameless and idiotic move by members of the ANC, whose love for the organisation is driven only by the fact that it has allowed them to be as incompetent in their roles as possible?

Another crazy statement which could fuel violence in the country came from ANC MP and former national spokesperson Jackson Mthembu, who said he could not guarantee that “if this (disruption of parliament) happened again, the ANC will be able to contain its members”.

If this is not a call for war, I do not know what it is.

Honestly, the ANC has made a mess of this country and the thought that they want to wreck it further by introducing violence is too ghastly to contemplate.

The ANC seems to be a party that is facing an unbelievable challenge to its hegemony in South Africa, and I suspect it does not know how to deal with this state of affairs.

This became evident when Minister of Defence Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula this week told other members of parliament that they do not intimidate her, when she was supposed to respond to questions in the chambers.

This past week has been dramatic in South Africa and I suspect a lot of action is still in the offing, until the ANC gets its house in order.

 - Fin24

*Mzwandile Jacks is an independent journalist. Opinions expressed are his own.
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