CAPE TOWN: The newly established United Independent Movement (UIM) of South African announced on Thursday that the movement and its leadership would not attend the second Senekal meeting slated for Friday.
The movement, led by business mogul and former ANC national security adviser Neil de Beer, said this was in response to various calls on the UIM and its leadership to attend the gathering.
The UIM said many of the leaders in South Africa were in agreement that attending the second Senekal meeting would detract from the main objective achieved at the first Senekal meeting, which was the mourning of the death of the 21-year-old farmer Brendin Horner and spreading the publicity of farm murders.
“On the other side, there are leaders who wish to spread racial hatred, by going to Senekal, they incite violence and talk about the brutal confrontation at the gathering.
“They will not be attending to show mourning and respect to the farmers who are brutally murdered in these vicious farm attacks. The UIM strongly wants to state they stand against such calls for violence,” reads a statement by the movement.
Former DA leader Mmusi Maimane, who leads One South Africa, joined forces with De Beer, who is also a former Umkhonto we Sizwe intelligence agent and most recently a special adviser to the Deputy Minister of Defence and Military Veterans.
“The better idea is not just to focus on the conflict barrier, but ensure that the Senekal matter does not remain an event but a catalyst for the beginning of a national healing and reconciliation process in our nation,” said De Beer.
He said the farmers of this country had the right to be upset due to the attacks they were dealing with and that they had the right to believe that they had to defend themselves.
“The UIM asks that the people of this nation stay at home and not attend the gathering if they are not there to mourn the farm attacks. This will not reach the desired outcome that the nation wants and needs for a united South Africa, this will only separate us further.
“The UIM and its supporters, in the strongest terms, also rejects and vehemently objects to leaders, for example, the leader of the EFF, Julius Malema, to act as civil defenders of law enforcement and also to call on a direct conflict of those who seek an opportunity to mourn the sad death of Brendin Horner”.
Having lost faith in the ANC, De Beer created the civil society movement to educate South Africans about their power and fundamental rights and to uplift their communities and elect independent candidates to public office.
This after a Constitutional Court judgment in June that ordered Parliament to amend electoral laws to allow for independent individuals to stand for election to Parliament.
“The UIM, therefore, wishes to call for peace and an effective plan to not only fight the farm murder scourge but all crime in South Africa,” said De Beer. |
IOL
