Cape Town – Calls for South Africa to take up the Black Lives Matter (BLM) campaign sparked a fiery debate in the National Assembly on Tuesday and showed sharp differences among political parties.
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) asked for the debate after the death in the United States of George Floyd in May triggered global protests.
While all speakers condemned racism some – like the Democratic Alliance (DA), the Freedom Front Plus (FF+) and the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) were opposed to embracing the BLM campaign.
The debate was kick-started by the EFF’s second-in-command Floyd Shivhambu, describing racism as a disease that must be erased from society, and accusing the ANC of disregarding black lives. He added that those who speak out against racism and white privilege are not racist.
“There is no black person who can be racist because they never ever think that they are superior to any other race,” said Shivhambu.
The ANC’s Richard Dyantyi noted that in America black people were a minority, while in South Africa they are the majority, although impacted by the legacy of colonialism and apartheid.
“The sponsor of the debate was looking for something catchy but there is no fit.”
Ghaleb Cachalia from the DA said he would not bend his knee “in the service of an agenda that serves certain puppet masters.”
The FF+’s Pieter Groenewald labelled the BLM Movement as neo-Marxist and anti-white and aimed at “destroying Western values”.
