COPE accuses ANC of using same ’dirty tactics’ as apartheid government

The Congress of the People has accused the ANC of using the “very same dirty tactics” as the apartheid government‚ warning that its "vigilante groups" will not stop the march to freedom.

“Paranoid Jacob Zuma and his securocrats have assembled a private army called the Umkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans' Association to intimidate and instill fear into anyone who wants to voice opposition against his misrule‚” COPE spokesman Dennis Bloem asserted on Saturday

“Then there is the Zuma/Gupta-sponsored vigilante group called Black First Land First Student Movement (BLF) who are going all over to cause chaos in the presence of the police and no action is taken against them. This is a similar pattern of what happened during dying days of the apartheid government‚” he added.

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Bloem applauded South Africans for coming out in their thousands on Friday to demand that Zuma step down.

“We are encouraged by the determination and steadfastness of the thousands‚ black and white‚ who took to the streets‚ ignoring the intimidation and threats that came from the ANC Youth League and other ANC-aligned thugs‚ to deal with those who dare to march against Zuma.

“COPE wants to remind the ANC that during our freedom struggle‚ especially during the 1980s at the height of the threat posed by the United Democratic Front against apartheid and later in the 1990s after the unbanning of the ANC and other political parties‚ the apartheid government also unleashed vigilante groups to attack‚ intimidate and disrupt the people's march to a democratic country.

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“The ANC must know that yesterday was just the beginning of bigger things to come. The moral campaign to remove Zuma will be intensified over the next few days and weeks. On Wednesday next week political parties‚ including COPE‚ will march to the Union Buildings to demand Zuma's removal from the Office of State President. On April 18, 2017 thousands thousands of people will gather outside Parliament when MPs debate a vote of no confidence in Zuma. The people will not get tired until Zuma is no more in that office‚” Bloem said.

“COPE wants to assure the ANC that their vigilante groups will not stop the march to freedom; they can kill few of us but not all of us. Victory is certain - Zuma will go‚” he added.