ANC distances itself from EFF rally shooter

25 May 2016

Johannesburg - The fuelling of violence in the name of the ANC will not be tolerated, the ruling party said on Wednesday.

"They want to fuel all in the name of the African National Congress and we distance ourselves from such incidents and individuals," national spokesperson Zizi Kodwa told News24.

"They don't represent the ANC."

Kodwa was referring to an incident at a rally in Mpumalanga on Tuesday where an Economic Freedom Fighters member was shot.

According to a News24 correspondent, EFF marshal Senzo Thwala was shot and injured in the leg when he tried to prevent a man he described as wearing an ANC T-shirt from entering the KaMaqhekeza stadium in KaMaqhekeza (formerly Naas) outside Komatipoort on Tuesday afternoon.

Kodwa said EFF leader Julius Malema had called him about the incident and said his party had footage and photos.

No understanding of democracy

"I said if there is such information we will ask EFF to forward that information to the police... violence is not accepted from any political party."

He said these people who were fuelling violence did not understand what democracy was about.

The ANC's national office was waiting for information from its structures in Mpumalanga on the EFF's claims.

"If they are ANC people... we will act harshly. If it means to suspend or expel people from the organisation we will do so.

"We must deal with this growing phenomenon of the uncontrollable desire for power...people do wrong things because of this uncontrollable desire for power and in the process they are damaging the ANC and its standing in society because they end up misleading communities."

Malema has blamed the ANC and President Jacob Zuma for the incident.

Call for tolerance

"[President Jacob] Zuma went to the IEC and signed a pledge. He said publicly [that] the ANC will not intimidate everyone, but behind this truck [there's] a person who was shot today by the ANC. I'm going to write a letter to the IEC to tell them that the ANC does not want free and fair elections.

"We are not scared of them, because we can also use guns. But we cannot use guns to determine the victory of our people. We want peaceful elections. We want a municipality that is elected by the people," said an angry Malema after the incident.

Kodwa said the ANC believed there should be no "no-go" areas in place while campaigning was ongoing in the run up to the August 3 elections.

The ANC called on its members to be tolerant of all political parties during the campaigning stage.

"The EFF can come next door to my house, ANC members must be the ones who must accept that.

"Let's not intimidate, let's not use violence. We can't win votes through intimidation and violence," he said.

This article first appeared on News24, see here.