mantashe
Gwede Mantashe. Source: Twitter @chrisvick3.

Home » ANC Leader Suggests US is Organising a Coup in South Africa

ANC Leader Suggests US is Organising a Coup in South Africa

Clearly the US ambassador in South Africa has a sense of humour, if his tweets over the past few days are anything to go by, as he has been faced with accusations by the African National Congress that the United States is fomenting regime change in South Africa. Along with a picture of Oprah Winfrey in one of her […]

By SAPeople Staff Writer
22-02-16 12:24
in Eish!
mantashe
Gwede Mantashe. Source: Twitter @chrisvick3.

Clearly the US ambassador in South Africa has a sense of humour, if his tweets over the past few days are anything to go by, as he has been faced with accusations by the African National Congress that the United States is fomenting regime change in South Africa.

mantashe
Gwede Mantashe. Source: Twitter @chrisvick3.

Along with a picture of Oprah Winfrey in one of her exuberant moods as she gave away fantastic prizes, Ambassador Patrick Gaspard wrote on Friday: “You get a coup d’état and you get a coup d’état and you get a coup d’état! Everybody gets a coup!!!!”

When it was first mentioned to Gaspard on Twitter that a US-led coup had be suggested, he replied: “I’m so disappointed as I always imagined that if I organized a coup it would look like Mardi Gras – food, music, dance”.

The accusations began on Friday at an ANC rally in Pretoria where the party’s secretary general Gwede Mantashe said “regime change elements” similar to those in Libya and Egypt had crept into South Africa, according to news reports.

“Those meetings in the American Embassy are about nothing else other than mobilisation for regime change,” he was quoted saying. “We’re aware of a program that takes young people to the United States for six weeks, brings them back and plants them everywhere.”

Sent the quote by someone on Twitter, Gaspard immediately replied, “I knew there was something suspicious about that tin can with the string attached in my last mtg. So sophisticated.” Then, more seriously, he wrote: “I wish that someone would invite me to these meetings. Let’s not blame others for our own challenges.”

Sent another quote in which Mantashe brings up the student programme, Gaspard wrote: “It’s called Mandela Washington Fellowship. Hundreds of brilliant young South Africans have been in. It ain’t a secret.” The programme was started by President Barack Obama in 2014.

Gaspard also wrote that Mantashe should know about the programme because he invited the ANC leader to suggest ANC youth to be part of it.

An ANC spokesman was quoted in a news report on Monday saying the ANC would express its concerns to the US via diplomatic channels.