[imagesource: YouTube / News24]

The EFF and members of the Afrikaner group Bittereinders (meaning ‘to the bitter end’) are never going to see eye to eye.

In fact, it’s actually rather surprising that the protest outside an old age home in Pretoria didn’t result in more violent clashes, given how tense the scene was.

The EFF headed for the Huis Herfsblaar old age home in Queenswood, to protest what the party labelled “racism and unfair labour practices”.

In response, the Bittereinders, who are led by Steve Hofmeyr’s son, Devon, gathered in a nearby field, and formed a barricade just beyond the old age home.

News24 reports:

The EFF, who were not obstructed by the group at the gates of the old age home, then decided that they would walk through the community blockade.

A line of police officers stood between the two groups as insults, some of which were racial, were hurled at one another. Both groups also made threats of violence.

Threats, counterthreats, intimidation, animosity, and a reminder of the anger that constantly bubbles away, just under the surface of South African society.

The two groups can be seen almost coming to blows around the one-minute mark, with plenty of vitriol hurled in the final 30 seconds:

Thank goodness for the police presence.

Once the required headline-grabbing antics had been ticked off, the EFF returned to Huis Herfsblaar and delivered a memorandum of demands.

The party says the home is guilty of “unfair discrimination, including that black workers were passed up for promotions, compelled to speak Afrikaans, and have less annual leave than their white counterparts”.

The co-ordinator of EFF Tshwane’s labour desk, Baatseba Nchabeleng, says the party was approached by 58 employees from the old age home, who requested help with their working conditions.

Huis Herfsblaar’s CEO, James Black, accepted the memorandum of demands and thanked protesters for keeping their demonstration peaceful.

That wasn’t always a given, with the EFF’s Obakeng Ramabodu saying “If they don’t move, we push. Let the blood come down.”

[source:news24]