South African’s National Liberation Movement

Media Statements

SOUTH AFRICANS MUST DEFEND OUR NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY

The African National Congress (ANC), together with a vast majority of South Africans, strongly condemns the USA’s new administration’s continued interference in South Africa’s affairs. These actions are a direct assault on our sovereignty and territorial integrity and an affront to the fundamental principles of international law. It reminds of a time in our country when those who, because of the colour of their skin, accorded themselves a supreme right to oppress, banish and jail many like President Nelson Mandela for simply calling for a just and equitable world and South Africa.

We call on all South Africans everywhere and citizens of the world committed to truth and justice, to unite for the final assault on colonialism and imperialism.

AfriForum and other counter revolutionary parties visited the United States of America with the aim of driving their regressive rhetoric aimed at racially dividing South Africans to avoid the real issues of ensuring that all who live on our land benefit from it. Today, the same AfriForum is blaming the ANC like typical race driven right-wing minded forces who never take responsibility for their ill-fated actions. The ANC-led Government has been focused on deepening democracy, stabilizing the economy through fiscal and monetary reforms, infrastructure development, and investment growth. The actions of counter revolution are an attempt at erasing all the hard work that will ultimately benefit all South Africans, regardless of race, colour, or creed.

The ANC has always believed in the right of all nations to determine their own destiny, free from external interference. We remain guided by our international relations and coopration policy which is premised on respect, peace, and friendship in the pursuit of a better Africa and a just world which observes the sovereignty of all nations.In contrast, the actions of AfriForum are rooted in the abhorrent ideologies reminiscent of apartheid, white supremacy, and neo-imperialism. These actions are at the centre of an international campaign to deliberately spread lies and misinformation about lived realities in our country.

The ANC stands in solidarity with millions of South Africans who condemn peddlers of lies who unashamedly spread false claims of land confiscation. Interestingly, this tendency is consistent with the evil Apartheid rulers’ approaches of yesteryear who mastered lying to the world with straight faces about the South African truth at that time. AfriForum’s false narrative is unpatriotic and bordering on treason as they invite external forces to undermine our sovereignty and democratically elected government.

The ANC calls on the government and the people of South Africa to hold the AfriForum directly responsible and accountable for compromising our sovereignty and tarnishing our good international standing.

Prior to 1994 South Africa was a nation designed exclusively for the preserve of white South Africans under the system of Apartheid. Our democratic dispensation has attempted to reconcile with the very same people who killed and maimed the significant majority of South Africans based on their skin colour.

The advent of democracy did not miraculously create a new country devoid of its historical injustices, on the contrary it exposed the stark realities of a country divided along racial lines and economic inequalities with the masses of our people landless in the land of their birth and on the margins of the economy.

Thousands of progressive South Africans, black and white, died for our freedom. Our painful history of colonialism and apartheid has taught us that any form of supremacy or foreign domination must be unequivocally condemned in the strongest possible terms. It is bizarre that laws aimed at redress are now labelled as race laws. Not only is this ahistorical but an outright lie.

Respect for our Constitution and nationhood is a hard-won victory that no minority should seek to undermine. We are part of a progressive community that values the use of established platforms and channels of communication among nations.

We call on fellow South Africans and the world to stand up firmly against elements that seek to divide us.

We must rally together. Our national unity and constitutional democracy are not for sale.

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ISSUED BY THE AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS.

Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri
National Spokesperson

For media enquiries:

Mothusi Shupinyane Ka Ndaba
Media Liaison Officer
084 498 0105