The ANC's Marius Fransman has accused the SA Jewish Board of Deputies of "abusing" the SA Human Rights Commission.
|||Cape Town - ANC provincial chairman Marius Fransman has accused the South African Jewish Board of Deputies of “nose picking” and “abusing” the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) with a “frivolous” complaint against him.
Fransman released a statement on Wednesday after reports that he had failed to attend a meeting called by the commission to mediate in a complaint that he had insulted Jews. The meeting was confirmed a month ago and Fransman agreed to it, but he did not come to the meeting on Monday.
The complaint relates to an interview with Fransman in February on Voice of the Cape, in which he said that building contracts in Observatory and Woodstock had been taken from Muslim businesses by the DA and awarded toJewish businessmen. The board at the time said that to attract votes Fransman had made “demeaning and inflammatory remarks” that would create animosity between Muslims and Jews.
In his statement Fransman demanded a public apology from the board “for misleading the people”. He said the board was running a mischievous media campaign.
Fransman said the board had chosen to “abuse our SAHRC by requesting them to investigate a frivolous complaint that in my view is not a violation of any individual or communities’ human rights, while the SAHRC is inundated with so many more serious complaints of real human rights violations”.
He said the board wanted “to fight a proxy battle on behalf of the DA”. Fransman believed white business was persisting in its attack on him “and in doing so does the grave damage to Muslim-Jewish relations which it accuses me of”.
“Such dogged determination to nose-pick and turn a blind eye while the travesty of reversing transformation under the DA government continues unabated must in itself be considered as a violation of the rights of the historically disadvantaged,” he said.
Board chairwoman Mary Kluk said Fransman’s reply was distressing. “The board has reached out to him to resolve the matter from the start.”
She regarded his allegations as “preposterous”. “We are an apolitical organisation,” she said. Fransman said he was co-operating with the SAHRC.
cobus.coetzee@inl.co.za
Cape Times