Black First Land First leader Andile Mngxitama speaks to The Citizen in Boksburg, Johannesburg. Picture: Neil McCartney
Afrikaner civil rights organisation ToekomsVonk has called for the arrest and jailing of Black First Land First (BLF) leaders for hate speech and inciting violence and genocide against whites.
The Congress of the People (Cope) has already laid criminal charges against the group, with more to follow.
ToekomsVonk was concerned double standards are in play in the matter and that BLF leader Andile Mngxitama may get away with his public comments due to being black.
Cope on Tuesday laid the charges of hate speech and incitement to violence against Mngxitama at the Kimberley police station in the Northern Cape. Cope in Tshwane vowed to support ToekomsVonk as a show of solidarity.
A video went viral on social media over the weekend in which Mngxitama attacked white people, saying that for every black person killed, five whites would have to die. Mngxitama’s statement was seen by some as a direct instruction for black people to kill whites.
Cope said hate speech and incitement to violence were unconstitutional and pointed out that the BLF may lose its right to contest elections through the IEC if found guilty.
“Hate speech and incitement to violence are specifically excluded from the protection of free speech enshrined in our constitution. Section 16 of the constitution gives everybody the right to freedom of expression but that right does not extend inter alia to incitement of imminent violence or advocacy of hatred that is based on race and ethnicity and that constitutes incitement to cause harm,” Cope said.
On Wednesday, ToekomsVonk is expected to lay criminal charges against Mgxitama at the Brooklyn police station and has demanded that BLF leadership be arrested within seven days. If the police failed to do so, the body would regard that as an endorsement of the “BLF’s threats of murder and genocide against the white minority”.
ToekomsVonk leadership condemned what it called BLF’s call for “genocide against the white minority in South Africa”.
“It seems the BLF is hellbent on starting a race war in South Africa between the black majority and the small white minority. The ANC-led government is doing nothing to curb these ominous drum-rolls of violence and threats of murder against the small white minority,” said Marius Coertze of ToekomsVonk in a statement.
He accused the ANC government of bigotry and double standards and sending a clear message of anti-white sentiment. The organisation alleged that the government had fuelled the violence and murder against the white minority, something that Coertze claimed they had observed for many years.
“ToekomsVonk dare say that if the race or skin colour were reversed, the perpetrators would have been arrested and incarcerated within 24 hours, but that would be the case only when your skin is white,” he said.
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