Organisers of the potentially super-spreader event outside former President Jacob Zuma’s Nkandla home would be investigated for incitement to violence and defiance of COVID-19 regulations, the ANC said yesterday.
TimesLIVE reports that hundreds of ANC supporters descended on Nkandla on Sunday in anticipation that Zuma would have to start his 15 months' detention for being found in contempt of a Constitutional Court order. They vowed to form a human shield to protect him from being arrested.
According to ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte, the party's special national executive committee (NEC) meeting agreed that the event contravened COVID-19 regulations.
The NEC instructed the secretary-general’s office and provincial secretary to urgently investigate and initiate disciplinary action against the organisers responsible for the incitement of violence and defiance of COVID-19 regulations; and to act against individuals responsible for burning of ANC regalia and other acts of ill-discipline, which violates the ANC’s constitution and code of conduct.
Duarte added that an additional concern was the presence of members of the now disbanded Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans Association, who threatened violence. Their “counter-revolutionary” actions were “akin to similar displays and acts by extreme right-wing elements”, she said, and this was “shameful” as it could have led to loss of life or serious injuries had the police decided to act.
“When words such as ‘human shields’ were used, we sat up and we took note. Those are words used by terrorists, internationally. Human shields – it’s a worrisome thing when words like that are used,” she said.
Full TimesLIVE story (Open access)
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