Backlash and support for Mngxitama's ‘hate speech’ video
A petition has been launched to defend Black First Land First (BLF) leader Andile Mngxitama amid calls for him to be ousted from Parliament after an old ‘hate speech’ video of him resurfaced online, reports TimesLIVE.
Mngxitama has been in the spotlight this week after he was sworn in as an MP for the MKP on Tuesday.
A video taken five years ago at a BLF event in Potchefstroom has resurfaced, showing him chanting: ‘For every one life taken, five white lives will be taken.’
Shortly after he was sworn in as MP, a petition started by ‘concerned citizens’ called for his removal from Parliament and gained more than 12 000 signatures.
On Wednesday, Umhlaba Wethu created a counter petition which had about 7 125 signatures by yesterday afternoon.
‘Mngxitama is facing widespread persecution from racists for declaring that black people will no longer sit and watch while their populations get decimated through white racist brutality as was the case during apartheid,’ the Umhlaba Wethu petition read.
Despite him asserting that the video clips were taken out of context, this has not quelled the backlash.
Grant James, a signatory of the removal petition, commented: ‘No members of Parliament should be racist and calling for the killing of anyone.’
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