A petition started by concerned citizens has garnered almost 10,000 signatures calling for the removal of newly sworn-in MP Andile Mungitama from Parliament.
The petition accuses Mnzithama, a member of the Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) party, of continuing to make hate speech and calls on the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) to take legal action against him.
This comes after a video taken at a BLF event five years ago went viral, showing Munjitama making threatening remarks towards white people.
AfriForum CEO Kari Curiel voiced support for the petition.
“This kind of behaviour could also be considered figurative language in lower courts and that is unacceptable and that is why we are now taking our case to the Constitutional Court regarding Julius Malema's 'Kill the Boers' song,” Curiel said.
“In that respect, you said it was a metaphorical expression, but the thing is, we shouldn't look at what people mean when they say that. We should look at how a reasonable person feels when they hear that. And when you hear statements like that children and women should be killed, that's harmful and it's hurtful,” Curiel added.
Meanwhile, Mngxitama says he is not worried about calls for him to be removed from parliament as he has previously been acquitted of his comments by the Equality Court.
“AfriForum took me to the Equality Court and the case was dismissed. The court was able to understand the context in which I made the comments. I was responding to Johan Rupert, who said in an interview that there are private armies in the taxi industry, where our colleagues are being killed, children and women are being killed indiscriminately, and here we have a man threatening violence against black people,” Mungitama said.
Andile Mngitama defended his comments at the rally.
