ANC Gauteng condemns attacks and threats on Panyaza Lesufi

The African National Congress (ANC) in Gauteng has condemned the racist attacks on the party’s newly elected chairperson, Panyaza Lesufi, by racist and right-wing groups.

This comes after lobby group AfriForum gave Gauteng Education MEC Lesufi a deadline, last week, to apologise or face a R500 000 defamation lawsuit.

The lobby group said the lawsuit stemmed from Lesufi’s alleged comments that Afriforum is racist.

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ANC Gauteng spokesperson Lesego Makhubela says “the demon of racism” has no place in the country and society, and it must be uprooted in its totality.

She says the Provincial Executive Committee (PEC) of the ANC in Gauteng views the attacks and threats to Lesufi in dim light and as direct attacks on the ANC itself and as an insult to the peace-loving people of our country.

“We are aware that for a sustained period of time, right-wing groups and offshoots and remnants of the National Party, organizations such as AfriForum, Freedom Front Plus and others who are defending a certain race and language, have been attacking Cde Lesufi by threatening him with lawsuits for merely defending non-racialism.”

“We want to state it categorically that non-racialism is a policy of the ANC and we are not going to standby and allow white supremacist vultures to carcass on the chairperson of the ANC for standing by and defending our policies,” Makhubela said.

Makhubela says it is also aware that the Democratic Alliance (DA) are losing Afrikaans speaking votes and are now desperately leaning towards winning them back by pretending to be defending Afrikaans.

“Exactly Two weeks ago, the party that deploys body builders and a defender of white privilege the Democratic Alliance launched their 2024 campaign in front of Comrade Lesufi’s office at the Gauteng Education Department under the guise that they were challenging proposals made in the BELA Bill, which indicates that a school must teach in at least two languages.”

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Makhubela said the Provincial Executive Committee is also aware that the attacks on our Lesufi were heightened after the ANC lead department of education in Gauteng went on an overdrive to rename schools that were previously named after “architects of apartheid” who caused untold pain and suffering to South Africans.

“After months of pushbacks from various white supremacists and racists groups, Gauteng education MEC and ANC chairperson Panyaza Lesufi bravely officially renamed the Pretoria-based Höerskool Hendrik Verwoerd to Rietondale High School,” Makhubela said.