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The Democratic Alliance (DA) is today laying a complaint with the Equality Court against Mpumalanga provincial ANC Youth League secretary Isaac Mahlangu, for hate speech and intimidation.

Earlier this week, Mr. Mahlangu threatened the City Press newspaper over a report on alleged corruption, by reportedly saying: "We want to give them a warning: the machine gun is hot and ready". Mr. Mahlangu also reportedly stated: "Our machine guns are ready if there is any deviation: You better not register an address in the graveyard sooner than your Handler [God] anticipated."

Charges will be laid at the Equality Court in Mpumalanga by my colleague Anthony Benadie MPL, DA leader of the province. Mr. Benadie will also request that the provincial police commissioner undertake to investigate the matter.

Mr. Mahlangu's statement was sent to the City Press after it accused ANCYL deputy secretary general Steven Ngubeni of awarding tenders to friends in Delmas in Mpumalanga. The paper reports that Mr. Ngubeni was previously employed as a municipal manager in Delmas until last year. The papers also claimed that Mr. Ngubeni had been involved in a hit and run accident on New Year's Eve.

The DA is laying a charge at the Equality Court because Mahlangu's threats to cause physical harm to the journalists and whistleblowers involved, qualifies as hate speech.

This is not the first time that the ANCYL have used hate speech threatening violence against anyone critical of it. Recently, the DA laid similar charges against another ANC Youth League official, Thabo Meeko, when he threatened the life of University of the Free State vice chancellor Jonathan Jansen.

The DA Youth condemns this violent rhetoric in the strongest possible terms and demands that the ANCYL takes action to assure members of the media and whistleblowers at whom these threats are being made to, that it will take them seriously and suspend Mr. Mahlangu.

Once again, the silence from both the ANCYL and ANC leadership speaks volumes. The double standards are breathtaking. How is it possible that an ANCYL representative threatens to murder people with machine guns, and his party's leadership remains silent?

Does Mr. Zuma just not care about these kinds of threats, or does he condone the kind of political culture the ANC is fostering?