This is just crazy: Helen Zille attacked by an angry mob, which threw stones and half-bricks at her car as she tried to leave:
Zille said she would demand police protection before going into townships again after receiving a head injury at the meeting in Crossroads on Saturday. She said she had also laid a charge of assault after African National Congress (ANC) supporters hurled chairs at her and threatened her with a knife on Saturday.
The ANC has responded to the attack the same way Robert Fisk responds to Islamic terrorism – by “strongly condemning” the attacks (”without qualification”, in Joel Netshitenzhe’s words), and then proceeding to qualify that condemnation. “The community reacted that way because they were upset about Zille undermining people”, said local ANC councillor Elese Depoutchin. Zille was responsible for “heightening tensions”, whined James Ngculu, ANC chairman in the Western Cape. Max Ozinsky, his deputy, complained that Zille hadn’t warned them of her visit, as though a mayor (or anyone else) needs to seek a councillor’s permission before addressing a community meeting. “The incident must be read in context” – that’s James Ngculu again.
Okay, James. Let’s read the incident in context, shall we? First your party fails to win a plurality of the vote in Cape Town, yet you refuse to form a government of unity with the DA unless they support your losing candidate as mayor. Then your party hack in the bureaucracy, Wallace Mqogi, refuses both to implement DA policy and to vacate his office, citing an illegal two-year contract your mayor signed with him the day before she lost the election. You’ve devoted pretty much every day since then to browbeating the smaller parties, attempting to bully them into bringing down Zille’s government prematurely. Now a bunch of your supporters try to go WWE on Helen Zille personally, and the best response you can come up with is “we condemn violence without qualification, even though it was sorta her fault”?
The Mobocracy
This is just crazy: Helen Zille attacked by an angry mob, which threw stones and half-bricks at her car as she tried to leave:
The ANC has responded to the attack the same way Robert Fisk responds to Islamic terrorism – by “strongly condemning” the attacks (”without qualification”, in Joel Netshitenzhe’s words), and then proceeding to qualify that condemnation. “The community reacted that way because they were upset about Zille undermining people”, said local ANC councillor Elese Depoutchin. Zille was responsible for “heightening tensions”, whined James Ngculu, ANC chairman in the Western Cape. Max Ozinsky, his deputy, complained that Zille hadn’t warned them of her visit, as though a mayor (or anyone else) needs to seek a councillor’s permission before addressing a community meeting. “The incident must be read in context” – that’s James Ngculu again.
Okay, James. Let’s read the incident in context, shall we? First your party fails to win a plurality of the vote in Cape Town, yet you refuse to form a government of unity with the DA unless they support your losing candidate as mayor. Then your party hack in the bureaucracy, Wallace Mqogi, refuses both to implement DA policy and to vacate his office, citing an illegal two-year contract your mayor signed with him the day before she lost the election. You’ve devoted pretty much every day since then to browbeating the smaller parties, attempting to bully them into bringing down Zille’s government prematurely. Now a bunch of your supporters try to go WWE on Helen Zille personally, and the best response you can come up with is “we condemn violence without qualification, even though it was sorta her fault”?