News24 | EDITORIAL | Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma is a threat to democracy. She must be stopped

Violent protests broke out in Soweto and Durban this week following a Constitutional Court ruling on how asylum seekers should be treated by Home Affairs.

Reuters/Stringer

The advent of March and March has tested the strength and resilience of our democracy like never before. This week, March and March expanded its targets from undocumented foreigners to politicians, judges and journalists, News24 editors write.

The genocide in Rwanda in 1994 started with politicians and commentators using inflammatory language and hate speech against Tutsis. Rwandans didn’t just wake up one day and decide to kill one another.

There was a long normalisation of hate speech and dehumanising language to refer to groups of people. People were called “cockroaches”, the names, addresses and numbers of supposed targets were published and then followed orders to kill.

The advent of March and March, a populist group emanating from KwaZulu-Natal led by former radio presenter Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma, has tested the strength and resilience of our democracy like never before.

March and March takes aim

This week, March and March expanded its targets from undocumented foreigners to politicians, judges and journalists.

The Constitutional Court became a target. The minister and Department of Home Affairs became a target. News24’s journalists became a target.

Why? Because these institutions were exercising their democratic duties, enshrined by the Constitution.

Let us not forget where we come from: for more than three centuries, black South Africans were deprived of human rights, dignity and protection under the law. We are a young democracy, and our globally celebrated Constitution protects all who live in South Africa, irrespective of race, creed, religion, gender or culture.

READ | Anti-foreigner violence erupts outside ConCourt

Ngobese-Zuma and March and March want to take us back to the bad old days. Their actions have directly led to the assault and murder of immigrants, some undocumented and some legally here.

She claims to only be concerned with the presence of undocumented immigrants in South Africa, but her actions and those of her followers contradict this supposedly legal position.

This week, after the Constitutional Court ruled on how asylum seekers should be treated by Home Affairs, she intentionally published lies and misinformation on social media that led to chaotic scenes in Durban and Soweto.

She has now turned her guns on the Constitutional Court and has asked for a referendum on the Constitution. On Friday morning, Home Affairs capitulated to the implementation of the court ruling after the police failed to adequately protect Home Affairs staff, offices, and queueing immigrants following the court judgment.

Is March and March above the law?

When News24’s investigative journalist Khaya Koko sent Ngobese-Zuma questions about how she scored government tenders (our full exposé will be published on Sunday), she published Koko’s cellphone number on her social media platforms, leading to several death threats being issued by her followers against Koko.

We have had to incur legal and security costs to defend and protect our journalist.

READ | ‘I’ll hunt you’: News24 serves March and March leader after doxxing, death threats

Here is the big question that President Cyril Ramaphosa and his Cabinet must face: are Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma and March and March above the law?

Are they all too petrified to act against her because they are afraid they may jeopardise potential votes before the 4 November polls?

Will Ramaphosa and his Cabinet rather sacrifice the Constitution, the judiciary, and the freedom of the media than act against someone who poses a clear threat to our fragile democracy?

News24 will open criminal charges against her for publishing Koko’s details online, but it shouldn’t be left to the media alone to hold Ngobese-Zuma accountable for her inflammatory actions that are laying the ground for those ugly scenes we saw in Rwanda in 1994.