Tag: natives

‘They are calling us bantus’: ANC leader

Senzo Mchunu
Senzo Mchunu

There was still a place in the country where blacks were called bantus, delegates, and homelanders, the ANC’s KwaZulu-Natal leader Senzo Mchunu said in Durban on Sunday.

“It is the same people in the Western Cape who call us refugees,” he told a rally marking the start of the party’s 2014 election campaign.

“They are calling us bantus. They refer to us as representatives. [They are] referring to us as delegates, referring to us as homelanders, natives,” he told thousands of African National Congress supporters at Princess Magogo Stadium in KwaMashu.

He warned supporters of people trying to secure votes in the Lindelani area of neighbouring Ntuzuma. Mchunu did not name the Democratic Alliance or Zille. On Saturday, DA leader Helen Zille visited the area. She said she saw no reason why the DA could win control of the eThekwini municipality in 2016.

Mchunu urged supporters to not to resort to violence.

“There is no need for comrades to engage in violent activities, whether it comes from a comrade or a non-comrade.”

He received a rousing welcome when he arrived at the stadium and walked around greeting supporters. A sea of yellow T-shirts emblazoned with a photograph of President Jacob Zuma swayed to the rhythm of the music blaring across the venue.

Mchunu said: “Peace, political tolerance and delivery will be a part of our campaign to deepen democracy in our country.”

He urged the youth to be patient and grab every opportunity that came their way.

“In the near future we are going to succeed to create job opportunities.”

The party faithful were urged to make sure the ANC would be ruled by the “green, black, and gold”, the ruling party’s colours.

He said the party had delivered infrastructure, from houses to roads and water, and had freed the country from apartheid.

Officers from both the police and the eThekwini metro police kept watch outside the stadium while ANC marshals ensured order inside the venue.

Several buses and minibus taxis were used to ferry supporters to the event. The rally was the first led by Mchunu since he was elected premier of the province on September 26. His predecessor Zweli Mkhize resigned as premier of KwaZulu-Natal to become the party’s full-time treasurer general. – Sapa

Native American confronts ‘anti-illegal immigration’

A Native American man criticized protesters at an Arizona rally against illegal immigration, calling them the real “illegals” for invading his country and killing Native Americans when Europeans first settled on US soil.

“You’re all f*cking illegal. You’re all illegal,” the Native American man yelled at the protesters, who had gathered in Tucson, Arizona to demonstrate their opposition to illegal immigration by Central and South Americans. “We didn’t invite none of you here. We’re the only native Americans here.”

Some have applauded the man for pointing out the protesters’ hypocrisy, who at one point immigrated to the US themselves or are descendants of immigrants. The Native American man, who was pushing his baby through town in a stroller, staged his own protest when he came across the rally.

“Get on with your bogus arguments. We’re the only legal ones here,” he yelled.

One protester was caught standing near the angry Native American and became the target of his criticism. The man was carrying a small American flag and a sign that read, “We should have put that sign up when you sons-of-bitches came.”

Pointing towards the American flag held by the protester, the Native American said that it “represents blood spilled by Native Americans, protecting this land from the invaders.”

“You don’t want to hear the God damn truth!” he yelled. “Get on, bitch! All the Native Americans you killed, you plant your houses here. That’s the truth.”

With Arizona’s proximity to the Mexican border, it has long been a hub for anti-immigration protests and initiatives. The state passed the “Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act” in 2010, which is a strict anti-illegal immigration measure that has stimulated significant controversy. The law made it a misdemeanor crime for an “alien” to be in the state of Arizona without carrying registration documents. It also allows law enforcement officers to stop any individual that they suspect of being an illegal immigrant, thereby promoting racial profiling. It also imposes heavy penalties on those involved in sheltering or hiring unregistered aliens.

The law’s controversial provisions were blocked by the US Department of Justice, but the Supreme Court in 2012 ruled to uphold the “show me your papers” provision allowing law enforcement to stop anyone who looks like an illegal immigrant.

But the Native American man who staged his own protest at the rally considers it hypocritical for Americans to criticize others for immigrating into the US when everyone but Native Americans at one point did so themselves.

“That’s what [the American] flag stands for – all the Native Americans you killed to plant your houses here,” he said. “That’s the truth.” – RT