Cyril Ramaphosa Workers Day rally

President Cyril Ramaphosa has spoken out for the first time since the Rustenburg incident.
Photo: GCIS / Flickr

July riots: Ramaphosa says THOSE tribalism remarks ‘struck a nerve’

President Cyril Ramaphosa sparked some outrage when he attributed some of the violence in the July riots to ‘ethnic mobilisation’

Cyril Ramaphosa Workers Day rally

President Cyril Ramaphosa has spoken out for the first time since the Rustenburg incident.
Photo: GCIS / Flickr

President Cyril Ramaphosa says some of the anti-tribalistic sentiments aimed at him during the July riots struck a nerve.

Ramaphosa gave testimony at the South African Human Rights Commission’s (SAHRC) hearings into the July riots, which were being held in Johannesburg on Friday, 1 April 2022.

The president sparked outrage last year when he attributed some of the forces during the violence to ethnic mobilisation.

The unrest started out in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) as demonstrations demanding former president Jacob Zuma’s release from prison – but morphed into violent looting sprees which soon spread to Gauteng.

YOU CAN ALSO READ: Riots: R1 billion approved to rescue businesses affected by July unrest

RAMAPHOSA: ANTI-VENDA REMARKS ‘GAVE ME CAUSE FOR CONCERN’

President Cyril Ramaphosa said some of the comments that were being directed at him, took aim at his Venda heritage – which he says went beyond personal.

He says tribalism was used to promote hatred amongst black people and also divide them, during the apartheid era. Ramaphosa says he was shown conversations, including one where someone said they would never take orders from him because he is Venda.

“For me, that went beyond being personally hurtful,” Ramaphosa added.

The president further then referred to Melanie Veness, the CEO of the Pietermaritzburg Business Chamber, who also testified at the hearings. Veness said there was graffiti on the streets saying Ramaphosa must go back to Venda, which he says concerned him.

“These words hit a particular nerve. They gave me cause for concern that tribalism, founders of the organisation that I lead, the African National Congress (ANC), sought to obliterate from the South African socio-political landscape. In fact some of the founding leaders said we must kill the demon of tribalism”

President Cyril Ramaphosa

More than 330 people were killed during the clashes. While the official word from government is the violence was a failed insurrection, others reckon it was pure criminality and that the country’s economically excluded merely saw an opportunity to help themselves.

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