Cape Town - The DA won’t allow South Africa to become to become a victim of the ANC’s “civil war”, says opposition leader John Steenhuisen.
This comes as ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule was barred on Wednesday from addressing public rallies or handling party-related matters while serving his suspension and facing criminal charges in a court of law.
His suspension was as a result of him not wanting to step aside. Shortly after the suspension announcement, Magashule hit back and suspended party president Cyril Ramaphosa. Magashule said that he would appeal his “fatally flawed” suspension.
Steenhuisen said: “The farcical merry-go-round of suspensions and counter-suspensions by the supposed leaders of the ANC confirms that we can either have continued ANC domination, or we can have a prosperous future for our country. But we cannot have both.
“On the one hand, it is clear that Ace Magashule and his fellow bandits will not hesitate to burn our country to the ground to hang onto their ill-gotten gains and stay out of jail. On the other hand, it is clear that Cyril Ramaphosa’s feeble strategy of appeasement has backfired spectacularly on a president who puts the preservation of his party over the interests of our country.”
Steenhuisen described the tension within the ruling party as one which is to become a fight to the death inside the ANC.
“They are all fighting for control over the industrial-scale patronage machine that the ANC has become. And because the ANC is currently still the majority party in South Africa, the damage will inevitably spill over into our society, which is already suffering under the greatest health and economic crisis of our lifetime.”
Political Bureau