ANC Women’s League leader whose weave was snatched by protesters in viral video speaks out

An ANC Women's League (ANCWL) leader whose weave was snatched by an enraged mob in Komani (formerly Queenstown) at the weekend finds it hard to comprehend what happened.

Eastern Cape ANCWL task team convener Nokuku Dube, dressed in ANC regalia, was pounced on by protesters outside the Queens Casino and Hotel in Komani.

In the video, the protesters trap Dube against a palisade fence and hurl insults and threaten to assault her. One of the protesters snatches her weave from behind and the crowd roars in laughter while she tries to recover it.

Dube, a former councillor at Mnquma municipality in Butterworth, said she was in Komani for the party's 111th birthday celebrations when angry residents confronted her on Saturday, complaining they had not had electricity for weeks.

Transport minister and ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula was set to address the event. Dube went to move her car parked in front of the hotel reception when she walked into the protesters.

“The crowd blocked me as I entered and swore at me. They said the ANC is corrupt. They told me they will not allow us to enter the hotel because they believed we were going to splurge public money at the gala dinner. I was wearing ANC Women’s League regalia. They pushed me around,” she said.

“I tried to get out after moving the car. The crowd said, 'You are one of the ANC thieves,' and took me hostage.”

The crowd demanded Mbalula and Eastern Cape premier Oscar Mabuyane address them.

“They drenched me with booze. They complained they had not had electricity for weeks. They called us murderers.

“One of them said, 'You will only leave here once Phala Phala comes and address our grievances.’ Another one said, 'No, [President Cyril] Ramaphosa won’t come here.'”

Dube said though having her weave snatched from her head was demeaning, it saved her. 

“The removal of the weave helped me. Someone grabbed it from behind. I then pushed the crowd and ran after the person who had it. Eventually someone came and handed it to me. That is how I got away.”

Dube said she was intimated and felt harassed and violated. 

“I couldn’t believe it was happening to me. I thought I was going to be killed because I am a woman. The protesters did not confront two ANC men who went through before me.

“I could sense that they hate the ANC. One of them said, 'If my firearm had a silencer, I would shoot her so that the ANC, in its corruption, can see that it will have corpses strewn all over the place.'”

She said police were watching and did not “move an inch”.

“There is nothing wrong with protesting, but in my understanding violence is wrong. Police should have intervened the first time the crowd blocked me. I went to open a case immediately after the incident.”

Dube said she was grateful for the humiliating video and pictures because they will become part of the evidence.

“When I left, the crowd said we will take pictures because 'we want the whole world to see that the ANC is corrupt, you are embezzling public monies. The gala dinner won’t go ahead. The food you have prepared will rot.'

“They didn’t realise that by filming, hoping to embarrass the ANC, they helped me. I wouldn’t have been able to open a case about people I didn’t know,” she said.

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