/ 17 May 2012

Angie Motshekga: Stop being sexist and racist, Cosatu

An ANCWL member holds up a poster supporting Angie Motshekga.
An ANCWL member holds up a poster supporting Angie Motshekga.

Motshekga said Cosatu members had displayed “sexist and racist” behaviour towards DA leader Helen Zille and parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko, Beeld reported on Thursday.

Cosatu members said during Tuesday’s DA protest in Johannesburg over a youth wage subsidy that they wanted to “strip Zille naked”. They called Mazibuko “the madam’s sidekick”.

Several female Democratic Alliance supporters who took part in the march were reportedly injured as a result of rough treatment by Cosatu men.

Motshekga told Beeld on Wednesday that the DA had provoked Cosatu, and that it would have been better for them to march to a government department. The government made policy, while Cosatu only had opinions.

“However, Cosatu should not have behaved in such a militant fashion. It would have been better for them to simply accept the memorandum,” Motshekga was quoted saying.

“What worries me more, is the sexism and racism that emerged. As an advocate of women’s rights, this upsets me. It’s unacceptable, and people should desist from this kind of thing.

“It’s the same reprimand we’ve always given Julius Malema and the youth league concerning Zille – focus on her politics, not on her as a woman. Leave her sex and her race out of it.” – Sapa