South Africa: Opposition leader condemns racism

Leader of the main South African opposition party, Democratic Alliance (DA), Mmusi Maimane, on Tuesday disclosed that he would not tolerate racism in his administration.

He said the country is still facing renewed tension and racial discrimination, 22 years after the end of apartheid.

“I will not tolerate racism in my party,” said Maimane, first Black to be elected head of the Democratic Alliance DA a year ago.

During his speech at a public meeting at the apartheid museum in Johannesburg, Maimane announced that members of his party would sign a charter to fight against racism.

He added that the charter will oblige members of the party to recognize that apartheid was a “harmful” regime.

“The members who will violate this charter will have their membership to the party cancelled immediately.”

Mmusi Maimane, first black leader of South Africa's main opposition, to root out racists https://t.co/9O3JhRJJIn pic.twitter.com/1UXSLcn5Y0

— AFP Africa (@AFPAfrica) January 19, 2016

A series of racist comments went around social media last week in South Africa, underlining the deep racial divisions in the country marked by decades of apartheid.

A message posted on Facebook by Penny Sparrow, one member of the DA, which compared the Blacks with monkeys had particularly created wide controversy in the country.

“I know that there are people who speak as if they still lived in the 1970s “.

The country’s presidential elections of 2016 which will be held between May and August will establish the first big test for the new leader of the DA, a party long considered as a party for the Whites.

During the general elections of 2014, the DA obtained 22 percent of the votes, its best ever score, but far from the 62 percent of President Jacob Zuma’s African National Congress (ANC).

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