Wednesday’s bomb blasts in Soweto were the work of criminals seeking to introduce a terrorist campaign in South Africa, according to President Thabo Mbeki.
Speaking at a press conference in Cape Town with visiting Greek President Constantinos Stephanopoulos, he urged all South Africans — both black and white — not to respond to the provocation and allow racial tensions to develop and divide the country.
”The information that government has had for some time … is that rightwing groups have intended to conduct a campaign of this kind, to destabilise the country and to increase the sense of uncertainty among the entire population,” Mbeki said.
The perpetrators wished to ”create a political climate that would enable them to undertake bolder actions and to seek the removal of the government and the installation of some other authority”.
Although there was no information at this stage about who was responsible for the blasts, the action would be consistent with information the government had about racist rightwing groups.
”I am quite satisfied that the people who are responsible for this will be caught,” the president said.
Describing the action as a hopeless venture, Mbeki said there was absolutely no possibility of these” extreme rightwing racist groups achieving any of the purposes they intend”.
”It is not possible. They will not succeed.”
Expressing condolences to the family of the woman killed in the blast, he said: ”The problem is they (the bombers) are claiming the lives of innocent people and destroying infrastructure.”
”They seek to impose on the millions of South Africans, both black and white, who are very united in the perspective of ‘let’s rebuild South Africa’… a perspective about our country which is false.” Mbeki described the rightwingers as a ”small group, with small explosives and some guns”.
”They will certainly fail and we will make sure they cause as little damage as possible.”
Mbeki said it was very important for black and white South Africans not to respond to the provocation. ”We wouldn’t want to allow that these groups generate a sense of racial tension in this county … That’s what they want to achieve.
”It is critically important that all South Africans understand that these groups are a common enemy of all South Africans, (and) that South Africa must unite and not allow that they get divided,” Mbeki said. – Sapa
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