MEC Mathabo Leeto should own up to her prejudices

MEC Mathabo Leeto should own her prejudices. This follows after she denied directing hateful and hurtful speech towards white South Africans and insulting the Leader of the Official Opposition, Dr Roy Jankielsohn, during the debate on Women’s Day earlier this month.

The HANSARD transcripts proves that MEC Leeto’s denial of her own hurtful words through comments to the media after the incident were an attempt to mislead the public and to conceal her prejudices.

In short, MEC Leeto claimed that rape in South Africa arrived with the ancestors of white South Africans, that their descendants are now DA members, that their graves should be dug up so that they can account, and that Dr Roy Jankielsohn was a piece of faeces.

What MEC Leeto forget is that all proceedings of the Legislature are recorded. For the benefit of the people of the Free State, we publish the verbatim Sesotho text below alongside our reasonable translation. MEC Leeto should own her words and should reflect on how her racially charged words further damage interracial interaction amongst ordinary South Africans. These are not the words of a leader. The official transcripts containing the below extracts can be found here.

MEC Leeto’s comments on white South Africans:

“Empa, Motsamaisi wa Dipuisano, o tla hopola hore taba ena ya dipeto tsa bomme haholoholo, e qadile kgale-kgale kwana.  Ha re ne re bua ka ho hatellwa ha batho Afrika Borwa, ha Jan Van Riebeeck a fihla ka 1652, re keke ra lebala hore bontatarona-moholo ba ile ba nkuwa ba fetolwa makgoba, yaba ha ba ntse ba fetotswe makgoba, bonkgono ba rona ba ile ba betwa ke bona bana ba basweu ba fihlileng ba nka naha ya rona.  Jwale re batla ditloholo tsa bona, tsena tse ka hara DA tsa batho ba basweu, di seke tsa lebala hore bontatabona-moholo ba betile bonkgona ba rona.”

(Acting Speaker, you will remember that this issue of the rape of women started long ago. When we spoke about the oppression of people in South Africa, when Jan van Riebeeck arrived in 1652, we won’t forget that our grandfathers were taken and made slaves, and when they were made slaves, our grandmothers were raped by these white people who came and took our land. Now we want their grandchildren, these white people who are within the DA, that they should not forget that their grandfathers raped our grandmothers.)

“Bonkgono ba rona ba betilwe ka nako eo bontate moholo ba rona ba ne ba isitswe ba ilo fetolwa makgoba.  Mohlomong bomme ba Afrika Borwa ha ba ntse ba hweletsa, ba tla tlameha ba bue hape hore ha re ba lateng re ilo ba ntsha mabitleng, moo ba leng teng, ba tle ba tlo arabela ditaba tsa dipetso tseo ba ileng ba di etsa dilemong tseo.  Motsamaisi wa Dipuisano, Afrika Borwa e bonahetse e buisana ka taba ena ya ho kgutlisetswa ha mobu bathong kapa beng ba wona ba bangata ntle le ditefello.”

(Our grandmothers were raped whilst our grandfathers were taken away and made slaves. Perhaps, when the women of South Africa shout, they will make a call that we should go and dig them out of their graves, where they are buried, so that they can come and account for the rapes they committed during those years. Speaker, South Africa is discussing the return of land to the people without compensation.)

MEC Leeto’s response to Dr Roy Jankielsohn after declining to take his question:  

“Nkeke ka nka potso ho motho eo eleng hore ke matlakala a tswang mmeleng wa motho, ebe a tsamaya ka hara… sewer system… ebe a ilo wela ka hara… manhole…”

(I will not take a question from somebody who is waste excreted from the human body, then goes through the sewer system and then finally into the manhole.)  

It is regrettable that MEC Leeto would trivialise the serious problem of rape in a country such as ours for political point scoring. Her comments does in any way address the problem of sexual violence and rape within our communities, neither does it offer any analysis on the prevalence of such crimes nor any solutions. Her comments were degrading not only to DA members and other white South Africans, but more importantly, to all the women who have fallen victim to sexual predators.

Statement issued by Mariette Pittaway, DA Free State MPL, 16 August 2018