Hon House Chair, the ANC is running out of excuses. This has been recently demonstrated by the ANC Secretary-General, Ace Magashule. He is being accused of widespread corruption before the Zondo Commission and even had a book called Gangster State written about his multiple misdeeds as the Premier of the Free State. He threatened to sue the author, but has remained strangely silent ever since.
Four years ago, a Parliamentary committee released findings of a probe into xenophobic violence. Since then, the ANC has failed to tackle its causes. As the ANC-led economic collapse continues, those causes have ever-greater effect, as our people get more desperate.
Because he cannot excuse this failure, Magashule now makes a suggestion that xenophobic violence should rather be directed against white people. This is a merest hair's breadth away from a call for racial violence. It is completely against the compact on which our Constitution was founded. It is a dangerous escalation of rhetoric, which may have consequences of violent crime and civic unrest.
Magashule is a member of the ANC's inner circle, which they call the top six. In this House, the ANC can tell the country whether or not Ace Magashule speaks for his organisation. And if they say that he does not, why is he still a member of the top six? [Applause.]