DA to lay criminal charges against Collen Maine
16 October 2016
The DA Youth will be laying criminal charges against Collen Maine, the president of the ANC Youth League – also known as the ‘Zuma Defence League’ - for inciting violence, after he called on MK veterans to take up arms for President Jacob Zuma.
Maine made the call at a pro-Zuma march organised by the ANC’s eThekweni region yesterday.
Maine called on “Comrades from Umkhonto we Sizwe, bring your guns. Now is the time to defend the revolution.” He added “We must do it. Generations that came before did it. They sacrificed their lives.” Maine tore into Zuma’s detractors, calling them “snakes who surround” the president “trying to bring him down.”
Maine’s statements are dangerous, callous and irresponsible and an insult to our Constitutional Democracy and they deserve the strongest possible condemnation. They are in direct contravention with the Constitution, which in Chapter 2 section 16 states that:
“Everyone has the right to freedom of expression, which … does not extend to— (a) propaganda for war; (b) incitement of imminent violence; or (c) advocacy of hatred that is based on race, ethnicity, gender or religion, and that constitutes incitement to cause harm.”
Many South Africans fought and died for a democratic South Africa, at peace with itself and the world. To call for civil war goes against everything the struggle for democracy represented.
It is telling that at a time of profound crisis for young South Africans, with Universities shut-down and youth unemployment rapidly rising, the ANCYL is more concerned with protecting Jacob Zuma than the plight of our youth.
The ANCYL is an irrelevant organisation, existing only as a lobby group for ANC factions that are unethical enough to call on their support when it suits them.
We trust that the SAPS will investigate this matter fully and that the NPA will find the courage to act without fear or favour in pursuing this case as well.
Statement issued by Yusuf Cassim MP, DASO Leader, 16 October 2016
