/ 21 May 1997

Committee rejects ANC’s Bushbuckridge decision

WEDNESDAY, 4.00PM

THE Bushbuckridge Border Committee on Wednesday rejected “with contempt” the decision by the national executive commitee of the African National Congress that the area remain part of the Northern Province.

Residents of Bushbuckridge have been attempting for some years to have the area incorporated in Mpumalanga, leading in recent weeks to several violent protests.

Rejecting the ANC decision, the Bushbuckridge Border Committee, which has been at the forefront of a campaign to have the area transferred to Mpumalanga, said the people of Bushbuckridge will not be bound by “any decision taken by the ANC and its members”, and that the party “on a political level cannot dictate terms to the people of Bushbuckridge. We reject with contempt any insinuation that … the people of Bushbuckridge are ill-informed. We emphatically reject the notion that the border is an ANC issue to be resolved through ANC party structures.”

The committee had immediately prior to the ANC announcement planned a fresh series of protests, including marches to police stations on Wednesday. On Tuesday evening and early on Wednesday morning two trucks, a school classroom and a store used as a staffroom were gutted in arson attacks in the Bushbuckridge area. Police and troops are monitoring the situation in and around Bushbuckridge.