Freedom Front Plus (FF+) leader Pieter Groenewald will not bother the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) as regards a poster he maintains incites violence.
Defence and Military Veterans Minister Thandi Modise is his preferred option as the poster is in what was once the top military medical facility in South Africa.
The poster, according to Groenewald’s informant, “appeared” on a second floor wall of 1 Military Hospital in Thaba Tshwane.
“It appears the poster, which has no identification as far as artist or organisation, is an effort to raise awareness of violence and an attempt to teach people not to resort to violence.
“It is racist in the extreme and blames apartheid for violence in South Africa,” Groenewald said explaining: “the poster’s message, illustrated by sketches, starts by saying during the years of apartheid, peoples’ circumstances led to ‘anger and violence’ because their human rights were violated.
“It continues stating people only had access to poor medical facilities, did not have enough food and clean drinking water and suffered violence at the hands of police and the defence force. It adds young people could not get a proper education preventing them from getting good jobs.
“This resulted in ‘anger and violence’ with communities protecting themselves using violence.
“Even though there was a change in government, violence remained with weapons becoming ‘part of peoples’ daily lives’ and violence part of black peoples’ ‘culture’,” he said adding the poster justified violence against the backdrop of apartheid and was “disturbing” to racial relations.
Groenewald will approach Modise demanding the poster be removed from the military hospital and “any other military facility where it is on display”.
“It’s time government moves away from blaming apartheid for everything from poor service delivery to social problems which are the result of its own incompetence,” he said.
