Ramaphosa suggests Mngxitama may be just ‘a lone voice in the wilderness’

In a radio interview with 702 on Thursday afternoon with Xolani Gwala, President Cyril Ramaphosa was asked for his view on the recent rhetoric of Black First Land First (BLF) leader Andile Mngxitama, who called on Saturday for a disproportionate killing of five white people, their children and their pets in retaliation for the death of one black person.

Ramaphosa, who spoke widely in the interview on the need to continue the “project of nation building”, said the more important question one needed to ask was how representative such a view was or whether it in fact represented a “lone voice in the wilderness”.

He added that, in his view, most South Africans were generous and kind. He said the project of nonracialism remained “the best project” in the country and it should never be abandoned in favour of hatred and division.

Ramaphosa added that the hatred and racism of a few white people could not allow society to characterise all white people as racists.

Xwala conceded that Mngxitama’s view was extreme but pointed out that, particularly on social media, black people appeared to be angry at the way society has evolved post-apartheid. Ramaphosa agreed, but said the lessons of former late president Nelson Mandela should never be forgotten and that racists needed to be isolated and shown the error of their ways.

He said later in the interview that the majority of reported incidents of racism appeared to be from the white community.

Numerous political parties and nongovernmental organisations have laid criminal charges and other complaints against Mngxitama and the BLF, who have defended his leader by accepting his explanation that he had been speaking about self-defence, apparently against billionaire Johann Rupert’s alleged involvement in taxi violence.

The Independent Electoral Commission has sent a stern warning to the BLF to refrain from further hate speech. The party risks being deregistered.

ALSO READ: IEC warns BLF to refrain from further hate speech

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.