Minister of Women, Children and People with Disabilities Lulu Xingwana “abused her office” and does not reflect honour or dignity in her position, the Afrikanerbond said on Wednesday.
“This minister has proven beyond any doubt that she is not fit to hold office in a constitutional democracy,” Afrikanerbond secretary Jan Bosman claimed in a statement.
This comes after Xingwana told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that young Afrikaner men were brought up in a way where they believed they owned women and children.
“Young Afrikaner men are brought up in the Calvinist religion believing that they own a woman, they own a child, they own everything and therefore they can take that life because they own it,” she said.
“We also have cultural differences as well in our own communities where we have women who are forced into marriage and we are dealing with all those issues.”
Xingwana was interviewed on the arrest of paralympian Oscar Pistorius on February 14 in connection with the shooting of his law graduate girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
In the ABC report, that aired on Monday, the focus was on how Pistorius’ case highlighted gun violence in South Africa.
“I would ask him to tell the truth. I would ask him to respect women,” Xingwana said.
“I would ask him to get rid of all his guns. Because I believe if he did not have guns in his home, Reeva Steenkamp would be alive today.”
Bosman said Xingwana’s statements were an “extreme verbal attack on the integrity of Afrikaners”.
“It is unwarranted, uncalled for and without any substance. At the very least the minister owes Afrikaners, men, women and children, an apology without any reservations,” Bosman said.
“We can only deduce that she chose to attack Afrikaners to create a smokescreen for her total lack of any programme of action whilst [minister] and to deflect from the serious allegations of corruption and mismanagement in her department and her failure to provide a report with details about these allegations to parliament.”
Bosman said the statement by Xingwana was in direct conflict with the oath she took when she was sworn in as minister, that she had “abused her office” and did not reflect honour or dignity in her position.
The Afrikanerbond would take up the matter with the office of President Jacob Zuma for the president to “act against one of the most incompetent ministers in his cabinet”, Bosman added.
Meanwhile, Afrikaner lobby group AfriForum said on Tuesday it was considering bringing a complaint before the Equality Court against Xingwana.
“Xingwana’s remarks boil down to a blatant contravention of various sections of the Promotion of Equality and the Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act,” spokesman Ernst Roets said in a statement.
“She has discriminated on the basis of race, faith and gender. On top of that, she clearly lacks the necessary expertise to talk knowledgably on the topic.”
Roets said AfriForum had submitted the matter to its legal team.