OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Tuesday
AN unrepentant safety and security minister Steve Tshwete has met with Portugals ambassador to South Africa, Manuel Rodrigues Perreira, following a growing row between South Africas Portuguese community and the government over crime.
The fracas has seen South Africa’s acting ambassador to Portugal called to the Portugese foreign ministry in Lisbon to discuss the issue, which began when Tshwete accused the Portuguese community of betraying South Africa by organising a protest march to the Union Buildings last November and delivering a strongly worded letter to President Thabo Mbeki demanding tougher action against crime.
An unrepentant Tshwete has stood by his letter, saying he had responded “in kind” to what he said was a “very arrogant and insolent letter” to President Mbeki.
In a five-page reply to the organisers of the protest, the Crime Awareness Campaign, Tshwete described the memorandum as “a conscious political act driven by your opposition to the government”.
Many members of the Portuguese community came to South Africa “because they knew that the colour of their skin would entitle them to join the ‘master race’ to participate in the exploitation of the black majority”.
Tshwete also pointed out the “significant numbers” of people from the Portuguese community itself had been charged with serious crimes in the past year.
Tshwete said earlier he stood by his controversial reply to the community, while Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Aziz Pahad accused the media of “creating a story”.
The document submitted by the Portuguese community was a “bad memorandum”, Pahad told reporters in Cape Town.
Leading members of the Portuguese community on Monday renewed their criticism of the government, saying Tshwete was suffering from “blatant ignorance”.
“Our government simply does not have the political will to implement the same measures which have been successfully deployed in other countries to combat crime and corruption,” the document said.
An official said Tshwete had drawn attention to a paragraph in his letter, which he believed showed that he did not attack the Portuguese community as a whole.
The quote stated: “… the government and those of our citizens in joining hands in the struggle to build a new and better South Africa, including members of the Portuguese community, will continue to do anything they can to achieve this objective.”
The ambassador indicated to the ministers that he would not be recalled to Lisbon in protest.
ZA*NOW
Youll never buy a loaf of bread again February 12, 2001