Gwede Mantashe tells black people: 'Go build in Orania'

21 Views

Gwede Mantashe has voiced his beliefs that black people should invade Orania, should he become South Africa’s next president.

On Sunday, 27 April, Mantashe spoke in his capacity as acting president to commemorate Freedom Day celebrations in Ermelo, Mpumalanga. This follows President Cyril Ramaphosa’s leave of absence due to illness.

GWEDE MANTASHE: ‘GO BUILD IN ORANIA’

Speaking on behalf of President Ramaphosa, Gwede Mantashe addressed a gathering at the AJ Swanepoel Stadium.

In his address, the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy spoke on “healing over hatred”, “peace over conflict”, and “reconciliation over revenge” in his speech marking 31 years of democracy.

Mantashe used the Afrikaner town of Orania to prove his point.

He said: “If I would be president for more than three hours, I would declare that people must go and build in Orania. Black people must go and build there. And we mix them. They appreciate that hatred can never survive. Peace. It is peace that builds a nation. But, I can’t. If I was, I would say go and build in Orania.”

Gwede Mantashe also called out white South Africans who had spread “misinformation” about the country to US President Donald Trump.

He continued: “Now they are told to go there and be refugees, but they are refusing. They must go. We are a free country, we are a sovereign country, and we are not a province of the United States. That sovereignty will be defended.”

‘MODERN DAY APARTHEID’

Gwede Mantashe is not the only high-profile politician to speak out against Orania.

Earlier this week, EFF Northern Cape leader, Shadrack Tlhaole, has vowed to infiltrate the Afrikaner town, where he plans to take up residence.

Addressing EFF members who had marched to hand over a memorandum to Premier Zamani Saul’s office, Tlhaole called out Orania as a “Apartheid-era racial-enclaved operating community within a democratic South Africa”.

He said: “Orania is a town that excludes black South Africans by race, language, and culture under the pretense of Afrikaner cultural preservation. It denies the right of back people to live, work, or own properties in the area. This is not culture; it is a modern-day Apartheid to disguise institutional racism”.

Tlhaole then claimed that the EFF would infiltrate Orania.

“I am going to be a resident of Orania, I am going with my collective, the leadership of the EFF. I am going to fight tooth and nail to be one society; we are going to be inclusive.

“The EFF is focusing on unifying all the people. Orania on itself, if not attended to very soon, there will be tension between black and white in South Africa, so we are fighting that we are going to win,” he continued.