Two senior EFF leaders stayed seated when “Die Stem” played at the funeral of veteran politician Mosiuoa Lekota – and their quiet act has sent a powerful message across South Africa.
SG Marshall Dlamini and DP Godrich Gardee chose not to rise because, for them, the old apartheid anthem still carries the heavy weight of oppression, pain and suffering that black South Africans endured for decades.
They are being praised for their courage. Refusing to stand wasn’t about disrespecting the occasion it was a deliberate political statement that the trauma of the past cannot be wiped away by protocol or tradition.
Many now say it’s time to face an uncomfortable truth: “Die Stem” has no place in our national anthem in a democratic South Africa. Symbols of the old regime belong in history books, not in the song we sing to represent a free and united nation.
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The call is clear especially to EFF members, revolutionaries and everyone who truly understands black pain: never stand for that part of the anthem again. Real freedom demands the bravery to reject anything that still reminds us of injustice.
This single moment at the funeral has reopened a national conversation about what true reconciliation and healing actually look like.