Moses Kotane (1905-1978), former Secretary-General of the South African Communist Party (SACP), is the subject of a biography written by the recently passed Brian Bunting (1920-2008).
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos
Fri, 04 Jun 2010 10:02
Taken from iafrica.com
A Durban woman burst into tears on Thursday as she painstakingly explained the trauma caused by the "hate speech" statements made about her allegedly by a provincial Sadtu leader.
"He has accused me of attempted genocide. I am being accused of trying to kill black pupils," said Amanda Burdett of the Moses Kotane Institute in the Durban Equality Court.
She filed a complaint of hate speech against Sadtu provincial secretary Mbuyiseni Mathonsi after he allegedly accused her of being a white supremacist who poisoned black high school pupils who attended the matric intervention programme aimed at improving results.
Burdett cried several times when Mathonsi's lawyer asked her to describe how she felt when she saw Mathonsi's statements.
"His statements put my life and that of my family in danger. It also depicted me as a monster and that is hurtful," she said with tears dripping down her face.
Burdett filed court papers after Mathonsi had written a letter to KwaZulu-Natal Premier, Zweli Mkhize, in October last year, complaining about Burdett and the CEO, Dr Terry Davies.
Mkhize is the chairperson of the institute.
According to the information presented in court on Thursday, Mathonsi had written that Burdett had tried to "recraft" the Moses Kotane Institute into an institute that ensured the rebirth of the defeated apartheid system.
The Moses Kotane Institute is a state funded institution which helps to improve maths, science and engineering teaching in the province.
The institution was asked to help during the matric intervention programme.
One of the letters, which was sent to Mkhize, also likened her to Dr Wouter Basson.
"My understanding about what Basson did is that his main objective was to find his way to commit genocide. That hurts," she said.
Mathonsi accused them of having stopped providing food to pupils during the matric intervention programme in Sisonke in the South Coast and Obenjini in Northern KwaZulu-Natal.
Mathonsi wrote that they — Davis and Burdett — had connived with Unilever to distribute stale and expired juices to pupils which made them fall sick.
"Sadtu considers this as gravitating in the same was as the one done by the white racist apartheid architect called Dr Basson who deliberately infected our people with killer disease."
Burdett said it had been arranged by Davis who used to work at Unilever before.
"The decision to stop providing food was taken after there was an influx of pupils who took part during the intervention programme," she said.
She said Mathonsi had also accused her of distributing misleading materials to pupils.
"That is disgusting. I worked very hard to ensure pupils got the information they needed. The information I distributed was just additional information because I heard that they did not have enough information."
Burdett is demanding R150 000 for damages.
The hearing on Thursday was attended by scores of Sadtu members. The hearing continues.
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