Johannesburg - South African opposition leader Helen Zille
has come under fire from the ruling African National Congress (ANC)
party following her arrest for participating in an allegedly illegal
protest march against drugs on Sunday.
Zille, Cape Town mayor and national head of the Democratic
Alliance, has alleged that her arrest with at least eight others had
'purely political' motives after her release. She and her co-accused
are to appear in court on Tuesday.
But on Monday officials from the ruling African National Congress
(ANC) party hit back at Zille, criticizing her for not acting against
suspected drug-lords and gangsters operating in the Western Cape
Province where Cape Town is located.
Western Cape Minister for Community Safety Leonard Ramatlakane of
the ANC was quoted as saying Zille had contravened the law while
trying to gather public support.
He also lashed out at Zille for joining the protest action
involving 'dangerous' anti-drug campaigners with a history of
vigilantism.
Zille led the march to protest drug abuse and was passing out
pamphlets in an anti-drug campaign in the sprawling Mitchells Plain
township of about 1 million people on the outskirts of Cape Town.
During the march, a Muslim preacher was arrested, and Zille
followed into a police station to inquire about the reason for his
detention.
Inside the station, Zille was asked to tell the crowd outside to
disperse. Then, while addressing the assembled group, she and others
were themselves arrested.
The Western Cape, the only province where the ANC has never won an
outright majority, is awash with drugs and related problems, with the
hardest hit areas being the impoverished council-owned districts.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
USA
Your Talkback on this Story