9 May 2000
The African National Congress condemns and rejects with the contempt it deserves, the distribution of pamphlets, by faceless elements, threatening land seizure in Boksburg, Gauteng (CITIZEN, May 9, 2000).
We appeal to the recipients of these pamphlets to remain calm in the face of this madness and the law enforcement agencies to ensure their protection while seeing to it that the perpetrators of these nefarious acts are brought to book and made to feel the full weight of the law.
We view this as the opportunistic work of sinister forces bent on destabilising our country, based on a mistaken belief that our people are gullible enough to be confused and misled by such shabby and amateurish tactics of agent provocateurs as the crudely drawn pamphlets used by these frustrated malcontents.
Our people have waged long and bitter struggles for the gains that we have made in this country and are too vigilant to be derailed from their chosen path by miscreants from a lunatic fringe with tactics which can work only with the politically uninitiated.
Their tactics of using the land issue as their entry point because of the crisis in Zimbabwe are not surprising because agents of destabilisation are good at fishing in troubled waters. We want to assure these forces of darkness that we will not allow them to undermine the peace in our country that all its citizens have worked for, and continue to work to consolidate.
Our Government has a programme in place to deal with the land issue and some of our citizens have already benefitted from it. We appeal to our compatriots, across the political, religious, ethnic or whatever spectrum, to join hands and make sure that criminal tactics used by these cowards are not allowed to interfere with this programme.
As the ANC we call upon our structures and the community at large to identify these criminals, expose them and make sure that they end up where they belong - in the hands of the police. Our community police forums can play a key role in assisting the police to apprehend these spineless creatures and ensure peace in our neighbourhoods.
Issued by Nat Serache
Media Liaison Officer
51 Plein Street
Johannesburg
2001
Contact Number: 082 416 3150.