Bongani Mthethwa, Times (South Africa), July 26, 2018

Whites and Indians will not be allowed in the controversial pro-Zuma political party‚ Mazibuye African Congress.

But the leadership of the party — which was launched last week after consultations with former president Jacob Zuma — says they are not racist.

This was revealed during Mazibuye’s first media briefing‚ held at the Diakonia Centre in Durban on Thursday. The briefing was to introduce its leadership and to affirm its support for Zuma‚ who will be appearing in the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Friday on graft charges.

Mazibuye president Reggie Ngcobo‚ a former ANC member turned EFF activist‚ was unequivocal about his party’s exclusion of whites and Indians from their membership.

“What we are saying is that coloureds are our nephews and nieces. They are black and they are natives in our land. So they are welcome. With the issue of Indians‚ Indians are seeing themselves as next to the whites by their behaviour.

“So we know that we were oppressed equally or more than them but we respect their existence‚ but we are not racist. But what we are saying you can’t do the traditional binding of your home with a witch. You can’t do that. So that’s our logic‚” he explained further.

He was fully supported by the party’s secretary-general Romeo Matjila‚ who said: “Our membership and the character of our organisation dictate that we are only open to our natives. Our membership is not open to anything that looks white. We are a pro-black organisation. We are going to maintain that‚ we are not going to be dictated by anything.”

Matjila added that it was up to “us as black people to emancipate ourselves”.

“If emancipating ourselves is racist‚ so let it be. But we are not going to be apologetic on that‚” he said.

Matjila added that the party was prioritising black emancipation and would make sure that black people were liberated — and this would not take “a white man to assist”.

“It’s going to take us as black people and we’re going to make sure that this dream becomes a reality‚” he said.

The party also announced that it will fully support Zuma during his court appearance on Friday‚ but emphasised that it’s relationship with him was merely to consult him as a former statesman and citizen of this country. It was not a political relationship‚ they stressed.

Ngcobo described charges against Zuma as a “concoction trying to derail the struggle for radical economic transformation”.

Mazibuye also revealed that it had approached former presidents Thabo Mbeki and FW de Klerk for advice‚ but both had turned them down. Mbeki’s busy schedule did not allow him to meet with them while De Klerk told them he had retired from politics.

The party president also announced that it will be registering Mazibuye African Congress in the Independent Electoral Commission to contest at next year’s general elections.