Malema arms threat slated EFF leader faces possible probe by the human rights body in wake of comments to 'remove the government through the barrel of a gun' Dennis Cruywagen, The New Age, Johannesburg, 26 April 2016 The Human Rights Commission is assessing remarks made by Julius Malema to see whether following them up falls within its mandate or if the matter should be referred to authorities doing criminal investigations. This was disclosed yesterday by commission spokesperson Isaac Mangena, who confirmed that the rights body had received a complaint about Malema' threats to remove the government through the barrel of a gun. Malema's threat would likely come up in Parliament today when State Security Minister David Mahlobo delivers his budget vote. Malema said "they" would "remove the government through the barrel of a gun" on the Al Jazeera network. Yesterday the ANC slammed his utterances as treasonable, seditious and inflammatory, as well as a call to violence. The ANC was joined in its condemnation by the DA, which called the EFF a violent party that would stop at nothing to gain power. The ANC called on authorities to investigate Malema's remarks. The State Security Ministry declined to comment. But Minister Mahlobo will table his budget vote as well as a policy statement in Parliament today. Referring to the EFF signing the Charter on Electoral Ethics, the ANC said that by appending its signature to the document parties committed themselves to upholding and promoting Constitutional values, alongside the Elections Code. "These reckless utterances display a shocking lack of judgment on the part of the leadership of the EFF who have a duty, together with all political parties, to ensure their membership abides with the laws of the land. "The remarks made by Malema are a clear incitement to people to commit acts of violence, which is against the laws of the republic." Backtracking As the heat around Malema intensified, the EFF yesterday tried to backtrack. Spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi claimed in a radio interview: "We prefer democratic and peaceful demonstrations and elections, but the ANC must not think that it's going to rig elections then send the army to silence us and we'll just go home. We will be forced to take up arms." He said that any revolutionary who engaged in the processes of transforming the country as EFF was doing must be prepared for violence in that sense. Ndlozi also claimed the EFF "doesn't have an army, the EFF doesn't have an underground unit, doesn't have a self-defence unit, we don't have guns." Trying to explain what Malema meant, Ndlozi said: "The context in which the statement was made was in relation to, if that continues to be a trend, we will be forced to take up arms." DA spokesperson Phumzile van Damme said the EFF's threat to use violence to remove the ANC government constituted a violation of the values that underpin democracy and could be viewed as an incitement of violence. "The DA condemns Malema's dangerous utterances with the seriousness they deserve," she said. "This proves yet again that the EFF cannot be trusted by South Africans to defend our hard-won freedoms and to ensure South Africa moves forward again." Van Damme said violence was not the solution. "Those who fought against apartheid provided us with a powerful and peaceful way to remove a government that doesn't care for the people: the ballot box." dennisc@thenewage,co.za From: http://tnaepaper.co.za/DRIVE/main%20edition/26042016/epaperpdf/4.pdf -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
