Funds for Sparrow and rugby protests on ANCYL’s agenda

Its KwaZulu-Natal branch having already aired its viewed on the issue‚ “Joint Fundraising for racist sparrow” will feature at an “urgent media briefing” called by the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) for Wednesday.

Members of the media will be hosted at Luthuli House “ahead of June 16 Celebrations”‚whichm the league noted‚ “are on Thursday”.

The other two topics on the agenda are “Transformation in Rugby and SARU” and “Youth Month programs and Rally”.

The briefing comes a day after the ANCYL in KwaZulu-Natal said the Democratic Alliance (DA) had hatched a fundraising campaign to pay the R150,000 fine handed out to former estate agent Penny Sparrow by the Equality Court for her racist Facebook posts that were said to compare black people to monkeys.

On Tuesday‚ Sparrow‚ who had failed to pitch up for the court hearing on Friday‚ broke cover and claimed the monkeys reference was not race-specific.

Later on Tuesday‚ Thanduxolo Sabelo said the ANCYL in KZN had been tipped off that “such a campaign is masterminded by the DA behind the scenes‚ a party founded on the ideals of the protection of white privilege and racism”.

eNCA quoted Sabelo as saying the fundraising efforts “has verified the accusation that the DA is controlled by Madam Zille and a group of white males from the Western Cape also known as the Stellenbosch Mafia”‚ which Western Cape Premier Helen Zille dismissed it as a “total fabrication”.

The transformation issue and rugby on the agenda refers to the league’s planned ambush protest targeting any of the three Springbok Tests against Ireland‚ the first of which was played at Newlands last weekend and the second of which takes place at Ellis Park on Saturday.

The protests were to be against the South African Rugby Union and the slow pace of transformation in the sport.

Yusuf Cassim, interim DA Youth Leader condemned what he called the 'blatant and baseless lies' the ANCYL in KZN were attempting to spread about the party.

"The DA is party for, and made up of, all people from all races and walks of life. We firmly, and without reservation, condemn all forms of prejudice and bigotry, including racism," Caqssim said.