A leading member of South Africa’s ruling party has stirred controversy as he called on the country’s black population not to vote for white candidates. RT has asked a local politician and activist to weigh in.
With even members of his own party condemning the decision to “campaign along race lines,” the pressure is mounting against African National Congress secretary-general Ace Magashule. He has already found himself at the wrong end of a number of corruption scandals and has now been slammed for his “racist” remark.
A few weeks shy of the 25th anniversary of the end of apartheid, racial tensions remain an undeniable part of life in modern South Africa. And some in South Africa support Magashule’s sentiment.
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“White people are the beneficiaries of racism, all of them,” Andile Mngxitama of the pan-Africanist Black First Land First party told RT. He believes that the disproportionate amount of resources that remain in the hands of the country’s white minority is an indication that they “still maintain an apartheid hold on the economy.” Given the circumstances, Mngxitama asks “why any black person would vote for a white person?”
Self-described “disillusioned left wing South African” Helen Heldenmuth sees this outlook is destructive, and not the opinion of the majority. Having been arrested for raising black children during apartheid, she believes that the solution has to move beyond black and white. According to her, comments like Magashule’s don’t help to “mend” the damage from the past, and only serve to further divide society along racial lines.
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