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Black Land First (BLF) says it will accept a decision by the Electoral Court if it says the party cannot, as part of its membership policy, exclude other races. However, it says it will retaliate in other ways.
"We will accept it the same way we accepted the apartheid regime that said we had no rights in the country. We will organise the same way we organised against the apartheid regime," BLF leader Andile Mngxitama said on Wednesday during a media briefing.
He said the party would fight for its liberation by all means and would have to be killed in order to be stopped.
"They will have to do what they have done to Chris Hani to us and repeat what they did to Mahlangu to us," he firmly said.
Mngxitama was responding after the Freedom Front Plus (FF+) again approached the Electoral Court in its bid to have the BLF deregistered from the upcoming elections because of its exclusion based on race.
FF+ announced on Tuesday that it would ask the Electoral Court to correct the Independent Electoral Commission of South Africa's (IEC) "mistake" in registering the BLF. This application comes after the initial one to the IEC was dismissed.
The party had previously withdrawn its bid in the court stating that there was a jurisdictional technical argument that the IEC was making in its opposing affidavits.
However, Mngxitama said BLF was determined that it had mounted sufficient, complex and comprehensive arguments against FF+. He added that FF+ had no merits as it was also "white dominated".
He said it was high time that all who were opposing the BLF made peace with the fact that they were number 11 on the ballot papers.
"Let us be clear, BLF is going to defeat all these attempts (to have the party deregistered). On our side we have prophets, strong sangomas and strong muthi…" said Mngxitama.
He said the basis of the party only accepting black people as members was not a matter of discrimination but that of "redressing injustices of apartheid".
"White people must make peace with the fact that we are going to Parliament.
"When we exclude white people, are we doing this to oppress them? No, we are excluding them so that we can redress a historical legacy created by white people against black people," he said.
Mngxitama questioned why FF+ had waited for almost three years only to contest the party's membership policy now.
"We cannot entertain somebody [who is] coming two years and nine months later," he said.
News24 previously reported that FF+ leader Pieter Groenewald said the party had a strong case as the Electoral Commission Act prohibits the chief electoral officer from registering a party that excluded people from joining based on race, ethnicity and skin colour.
The matter between the two parties will be heard in the Gauteng High Court sitting in Johannesburg on April 29.
