WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2008-12-14 Time: 07:00:06 Posted By: Jan
By Political Staff
The two black judges who ruled that COPE could keep the name Congress of the People are “apartheid apologists”, says ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe.
He said the ANC was paying the price for being “too apologetic… about who we are”.
Three Pretoria High Court judges – Judge President of the Transvaal Provincial Division Bernard Ngoepe and Judges Jerry Shongwe and Ben du Plessis – on Friday dismissed the ANC’s application to challenge the breakaway party’s use of the name.
However, on Saturday Mantashe said he could forgive Du Plessis – a white judge – for not knowing the “historical facts”, but described the two other judges – who are black – as “apartheid apologists”. He did not refer to their race though.
Mantashe was speaking at the conference of the Young Communist League in Johannesburg.
In its court application the ANC contended that Cope, by using the name Congress of the People, was trying to associate itself with the historical 1955 Congress of the People in Kliptown.
But Judge Du Plessis ruled: “No reasonable voter, even those with but a passing knowledge of the relevant history, will think that COPE, a party established in 2008, is the event that took place in 1955.”
Mantashe repeated his comments about the judges to Weekend Argus, saying the judgment was “historically and factually incorrect”, and he could not understand why the two black judges did not “know historical facts”.
“I am not criticising or attacking the judges, but I am criticising their judgment, which reflects their historical background. Everybody who understands the painful history of this country knows the facts (about the origin of the Congress of the People). Why can’t they? Yes, I said they are apartheid apologists. I did not expect Ngoepe and Shongwe to take such a line.
“We are being apologetic about who we are… As a liberation movement, we have even hesitated to build Heroes’ Acres, a monument to document our history.”
It is not the first time Mantashe has attacked the judiciary for taking what he described as a political line against the ANC.
He was once quoted as saying judges were counter-revolutionaries for their stance against ANC President Jacob Zuma’s legal wrangles. After fierce criticism he later denied the remarks.
In January, Mantashe attacked Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke, questioning his political history, for making public remarks about his role in creating an equal society despite what the ANC delegates to Polokwane wanted.