Home » White Coligny Woman’s Attempt at Peace and Unity Receives Hostile Response

White Coligny Woman’s Attempt at Peace and Unity Receives Hostile Response

A concerned local resident of Coligny, North West, had to be escorted away from EFF protestors on Friday, apparently for her own safety… after her courageous attempt at apology and reconciliation was not met that warmly by the marchers. Tension between white and black residents has been running high in the area since the alleged murder of […]

19-05-17 21:11

A concerned local resident of Coligny, North West, had to be escorted away from EFF protestors on Friday, apparently for her own safety… after her courageous attempt at apology and reconciliation was not met that warmly by the marchers.

Tension between white and black residents has been running high in the area since the alleged murder of 17-year-old black teenager Matlhomola (Faki) Mosweu in April. This was fuelled further by the release on bail of his two white suspects – Phillip Schutte and Pieter Doorewaard – on 9 May.

The EFF in the North West marched to the police station today in a protest against racism and poor service delivery.

Tash Botha intercepted the marchers to ask where their leader, Julius Malema, was… which angered many. (Watch video below.) Tash later told City Press reporters she was asking because she wanted to meet Malema, wear an EFF shirt and march in solidarity to show “that we’re not happy at all about what is happening in our town. We need our peace and harmony back”.

On the video, Tash can be heard asking the marchers to “verskoon julle ons asseblief” (forgive/excuse us please). She said: “We all lived in harmony before this accident. Just few people have caused this problems and now we all find ourselves in this bad situation.”

After she had been led away by the police, the marchers continued to the station where they handed over a memorandum calling for the state to appeal the bail granted the two suspects.

The suspects had initially handed themselves in after the death of Faki. They claim they were taking him to the police station, because they had caught him stealing sunflowers from the farmer’s field, and that he jumped off the back of the bakkie and broke his neck fatally in the fall. A witness claims he was pushed.

The EFF marchers vowed today no reconciliation without “justice”.

In an interview on EWN yesterday, the teen’s father said: “I will never trust white people again”. (Watch below.)

Tash told City Press today: “I was not there to cause any trouble at all… we all want peace and unity.”