The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has slammed the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) “shallow” likening of the former to the Nazis.
This after the red berets picketed outside Brackenfell High School on Monday following reports that a private event, organised by matric parents, was only attended by white pupils.
They were met by angry community members, who denied the school or event was racist, saying the event was open to everyone.
Following the confrontation, the DA released a statement condemning the EFF’s apparent threatening attempts “to bend society to its will by interfering where it has absolutely no business to be”.
It said in part: “If we are to prevent people taking the law into their own hands, the Police must do their job properly. It was the job of SAPS to prevent and disperse the EFF unlawfully gathering outside a school and seeking to infringe on the rights of private citizens.
“The Nazis had the brown shirts that went around terrorising minorities. South Africa has the red shirts.”
In response, the EFF said the DA’s comments were unfortunate in their timing, “as the world remembers the horrors of Kristallnacht, on the 9th and 10th of November 1938, where one-hundred Jewish people were murdered by the Nazi regime, and tens of thousands of people were sent to concentration camps.”
The DA’s statement showed its desperation for relevance and a desire to win back its lost white-voter base, said the EFF.
“They affirm their support of racial segregation by saying the EFF has no business in conducting a peaceful protest in Brackenfell. The EFF is a political party that believes in a South Africa that does not live in racist silos. We will not stand by silently when Section 9 of the Constitution is trampled on, by people who believe that having a white-only event, under the banner of a public school in our democracy can be recognised as a private event. It is the business of the EFF to ensure that the spirit and the mandate of the Constitution are upheld in South Africa.
“The EFF calls on South Africans to continue to reject the DA, particularly on the ballot. We are yet to see the worst of their regression to the right, as they compete with Afriforum and FF+ to capture the white vote. We will not be told by the DA where we can and cannot protest, and we encourage them to continue their disturbing free-fall into the gutters of insignificance.”
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