FF Plus requests Gauteng Integrity Commissioner to investigate Lesufi’s statements

18 June 2019

As the first in a series of steps to be taken against Panyaza Lesufi, the Gauteng MEC for Education, the FF Plus today officially requested the Gauteng Legislature's Integrity Commissioner to launch an investigation into his recent derogatory statements concerning white learners.

The FF Plus's complaint is based on Lesufi being in contempt of South Africa's Constitution, which prohibits any form of racism, and two clauses of the Gauteng Legislature's Code of Conduct, which stipulates that members of the Legislature must be worthy of their office and that they should at all times act honourably and with integrity.

The derogatory remark Lesufi made last week by referring to white learners as "klein basies" in front of an audience while he was explaining his department's operational plans for the year concerning mother-tongue education is absolutely unacceptable.

The term "klein basies" is clearly a reference to the Apartheid era. Not all Afrikaners approved of the use of such terms and it can be seen as a racist practice that was abolished in the new democratic dispensation.

All South Africans embraced a new era of cooperation and equality 25 years ago. And, thus, referring to a white person or an Afrikaner as "baas" or "kleinbaas" is to label them as racist, which is a very serious accusation.

With his derogatory statements, Lesufi labelled all white learners and particularly Afrikaners – in the context of his referral to Afrikaans schools – as racists.

The truth, however, is that Lesufi wants to continue using Apartheid as a mechanism with which to punish white people and destroy Afrikaans. All while there are more coloured and black people who speak Afrikaans than there are white people who speak Afrikaans.

Issued by Anton Alberts, FF Plus MPL and caucus leader: Gauteng, 18 June 2019