Home affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi sank to a deplorable low last week in linking legal opposition to the termination of Zimbabwean exemption permits to the purported race of the litigants.

His statement related to the legal challenge by the Helen Suzman Foundation to the termination of the permits at the end of December. Not only did the minister attack nongovernmental organisations that use the courts to oppose government decisions, but he attacked what he called armchair critics such as the foundation “who have no idea of the sacrifices and deaths of many freedom fighters, while they sat in the comfort of their homes because of the colour of their skin. They now claim to be champions of the human rights of the African people in the whole continent.”..

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