/ 25 January 2008

Soapie star’s comments anger ANC

The African National Congress (ANC) has lashed out at a popular soap opera actress for claiming the ANC murders its opponents, and is planning legal action against her.

The actress, Winnie Ntshaba, who plays Khethiwe in the soap opera Generations, was speaking at an Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) gathering in Durban earlier this week when she reportedly said: ”The ANC tried to get rid of IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi”.

She was also quoted as saying: ”We know what the ruling party does to people who oppose them. They kill them.”

ANC provincial secretary Senzo Mchunu on Friday said the party was ”outraged by her spurious utterances”.

”The ANC rejects these utterances in strongest terms. We regard this statement as an indictment to the ANC since it portrays the party as thriving on killing its opponents,” Mchunu said in a statement.

He said Ntshaba needed to ”urgently produce the list of people who have been killed by the ANC since 1994”.

”The ANC will be consulting with its lawyers with an aim of suing Ntshaba for defaming the ANC,” Mchunu said.

The Mercury newspaper on Friday reported that Ntshaba was the sister of the IFP Women’s Brigade head, Thembi Nzuza.

Ntshaba told the newspaper that she had been engaged to perform at the IFP rally and had been provided with a script she had not seen beforehand.

She said the opinions were those of her client, the IFP. – Sapa