This week the KwaZulu Natal Provincial Parliament, theoretically the arbiter of your civil liberties, will vote - most likely given the ANC’s absolute majority following the latest round of floor-crossing - to seal your future in the Eastern Cape. 

The legislation was passed by the national parliament already two years ago and saw, among other areas, Matatiele re-demarcated from KwaZulu Natal into the Eastern Cape last year. This was despite heavy opposition from the Matatiele/Maluti Mass Action Campaign Organising Committee and the IFP. We complained that many people in the area did not want, understandably, to move to the Eastern Cape. 

The acts under which Matatiele was ceded from KwaZulu Natal to the Eastern Cape have since been declared invalid by the Constitutional Court because of insufficient public consultation in our province. The ANC, the ruling party in both provinces and bent on the demarcation process, came up with a quick fix. 

The ruling party is known to make sure that the audiences it chooses to address do pamper it with applause. Whenever parliament is taken to the people, the ANC ensures that it is taken to the right people: they simply bus in their own supporters even to IFP strongholds to prevent an unfavourable response from the crowds. 

And so it was with the latest round of public hearings about Matatiele. The ANC, according to many witnesses, bussed in an audience from the Eastern Cape to make sure the message of the public hearings would be to its liking. 

The ANC government has derived much political capital from its condemnation of the apartheid regime, which promulgated many a policy against the explicit wishes of the people whom these policies affected most. By enforcing the demarcation legislation against the interests of the people whom it will literally displace, the ANC government has formally assumed the role of an apartheid-style oppressor.

Dr Lionel Mtshali MPP
Leader of the Official Opposition

Contact: Dr Lionel Mtshali, 083 256 4902