ANC, DA and SAPS

No, SAPS is not a new political party in South Africa. The acronym stands for: South African Police Service.

Today the police, the ANC and the DA were involved in a clash, if we are to believe the Mail and Guardian. But I also heard about the clash on radio and I saw it on TV. The story is this:

ANC issued an election manifesto some weeks ago. In this manifesto they say they are going to create 6 million new job opportunities the coming 5 years. The DA then decided to organise a march to Luthuli House (the headquarters of the ANC) and hand over a memorandum, stating that the country needs real jobs and not job opportunities.

But the DA did not feel confident that the ANC supporters would welcome them with open arms, so the DA hired private, armed security guards, to protect the march. This was interpreted as a provocation by ANC-supporters, who took to the streets and suddenly Johannesburg saw two political rallies. In the same neighbourhood, at the same time. Not good. Not good at all!

I believe it was unwise by the DA to have armed guards. One can also ask if it is was good decision to march to another party’s headquarters. Anyhow, they got permission from the police to go ahead but they had to stop a block before Luthuli House. At Beyers Naude Square. Fair enough!

What the ANC did was wrong. They were not permitted to gather. So the party, which speaks about discipline, should have stopped their members. On radio one of the leaders said that they needed to protect their headquarters. They felt that Luthuli House was under a siege. Really?

It is election year. Tomorrow the President will deliver the State of Nation Address. Most probably he will not mention what happened today. What is interesting is that neither the ANC nor the DA says anything on their respective websites about the clash. To me it would have been a chance at least to give some own views about the incident.

So, what happened? Some bricks were thrown. Some ANC supporters were arrested. As far as I have understood, no one was hurt. But the way I understand it, it was not an example of respect! From neither party! With the upcoming election 7 May I hope the parties will be more serious in the coming months.