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Pretoria – Blacks must grow their own tomatoes and stop being a burden on the white taxpayer base.
“It’s time black people [started] to do things on their own, feed themselves, produce their own toilet rolls, their own bread, grow their own tomatoes.”
This is according to Tshidiso Mokhoanatse, the leader of the relatively unknown Agency for New Agenda (ANA) party. He is taking the South African Rugby Union to court over what he says was the racially skewed composition of the Springbok team selected to go to Britain to compete in the 2015 Rugby World Cup.
The party was founded in 2013 and initially called South Africa First. In an interview with News24, Mokhoanatse said his party stood for equality; was not racist; did not want to make a noise and did not advocate for the destruction of property.
They wanted black people to be self-reliant and stop being a burden on the white taxpayer base. Blacks were largely still consumers and workers and did not own companies that produced goods. This needed to change, but black economic empowerment was not the way. It merely ensured blacks got portions of white-owned companies, he said.
‘Underdogs’
Blacks were still the underdogs and had not enjoyed the benefits of living in a democracy. His party was made up of former Umkhonte we Sizwe and African National Congress (ANC) members who felt the ruling party had strayed from its ideals of achieving freedom and equality for the majority.
He would only say the party was growing when asked how many members it had. It is not on the Electoral Commission of South Africa's list of parties.
On his reasons for the court action, he said after 21 years, South Africa’s rugby administrators had still not put together a demographically-representative national team.
“They are going to hold our flag, they are going to sing our national anthem. I am not going to be party to that.”
High court
On Wednesday, he would ask the High Court in Pretoria to determine if the Springbok team was racially biased.
“The pay-off line of the Springboks is honour and heritage. Whose heritage? Which heritage are they going to promote? Behind the facade of the national team is a scheme to exclude our people.”
He rejected coach Heyneke Meyer’s statement that 30% representation had been achieved by including nine black players in the squad. It was still not representative of the country’s demographics, Mokhoanatse said.
“They had 21 years to fix whatever. I won’t entertain the debate on skill,” he added.
