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Trade union Solidarity today said that if the ANC is really serious about racism, it would have to take action in its own ranks. This comes after ANC MP Mduduzi Manana yesterday shouted “Bury them alive!” during a debate on farm murders held in the National Assembly.

According to Dr Eugene Brink, a political analyst at the Solidarity Research Institute, this kind of remark is typical of the anti-white racism that has gained a foothold in the ANC. “The more threatened the ANC feels and the more they are failing otherwise, the fiercer this kind of rhetoric of race is becoming,” Brink said. By making such a statement Manana is, according to Brink, lowering the killing of farmers to a status that is lower than murders on other South Africans and Manana is even inciting farm murders. “By his statements he concedes that the lives of farmers are worth nothing and that they do not have the constitutionally guaranteed right to life,” Brink explained.

“Statements such as his and those made by other politicians such as Julius Malema, are inciting violence against white people in particular, and do not contribute towards finding a solution at all. This is the kind of rhetoric prominent Hutu leaders used against the Tutsi minority in the run up to the genocide in Rwanda. It soon became more common and acceptable until it resulted in one of the worst ever genocides when about 800 000 people were killed in three months,” Brink warned.

According to Brink, statements such as this one would not be uttered in any other parliament, especially not by people belonging to the ruling party. Brink furthermore warned that the incitement of farm murders is regarded as a proxy to kill white people in general. “Such statements filter through to ordinary people, as is increasingly evident in the incitement to violence seen on social media,” Brink warned.

“We therefore admonish the ruling party to take strong action against Manana and publicly denounce his statement,” Brink said.

Issued by Solidarity