OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Sunday
THE ANC top brass has been sent scrambling for cover and are refusing to renounce comments by the party’s KwaZulu-Natal chairman S’bu Ndebele, who threatened vengeance against Africans, coloureds and Indians who voted against the ANC this week, the Sunday Times reports.
Ndebele, a member of the KwaZuluNatal provincial Cabinet, told ANC supporters in Durban that there would be “consequences” for those who voted for the Democratic Alliance.
Speaking at a post-election victory rally in Durban, Ndebele said: “To all the Africans, coloureds and Indians who voted DA, be warned that there’s going to be consequences for not voting for the ANC.
“When it comes to service delivery, we will start with the people who voted for us and you will be last “
Opposition parties labelled Ndebele’s statements irresponsible and against the spirit of the Constitution, the newspaper said.
Ndebele has denied making the reported comments.
However, after Sunday Times reporters played him a recording of the rally, he adopted a defiant stance, saying his message had been that the ANC would concentrate on developing poor communities.
“The way it was then put [by the media] was like you are going to Phoenix [an Indian area] and switch off the lights in order to put on the lights in Ndwedwe [an African area]” he said.
“What I said is let us put our people first I’m going to continue saying it and not only that, I am going to implement it.
“There is nobody, nobody who is going to stop us. It is a policy that is taken by the ANC that I know.
“I don’t have my screws loose. I am not concentrating on my image. I’m concentrating on what needs to be said,” the newspaper quoted him as saying.
This week ANC leaders, including members of the Cabinet, refused to condemn Ndebele’s statement.
President Thabo Mbeki’s spokesman, Nazeem Mahatey, said the question was “an ANC matter”.
An ANC representative, Nomfanelo Kota-Mayosi, said the party was refer ring all queries to Ndebele. “He must explain himself,” she said.
The Human Rights Commission’s Jody Kollapen said if the statement attributed to Ndebele was correct, “such utterances do not augur well for democracy”.