Race row erupts in South Africa's government

JOHANNESBURG

A race row erupted at the top political level in South Africa on Wednesday when a popular cabinet minister accused the government's top spokesman of apartheid racism in a scathing published attack.

Planning Minister Trevor Manuel wrote an open letter to Jimmy Manyi after year-old comments by the spokesman surfaced in which he said there was an "over supply" of mixed race South Africans in the Western Cape.

"I want to put it to you that these statements would make you a racist in the mould of HF Verwoerd," the architect of apartheid white minority rule, wrote Manuel, who is of mixed race, known as coloured in South Africa.

"I want to put it to you that your behaviour is of the worst-order racist." A You Tube clip was posted last week in which Manyi said coloureds "should spread in the rest of the country" and "stop this over-concentration" in the Western Cape.

The interview was filmed in March 2010 when Manyi, who heads the national Black Management Forum, was director general of the labour department which oversees employment equity law.

"I now know who Nelson Mandela was talking about when he said from the dock that he had fought against white domination and that he had fought against black domination," charged Manuel, referring to the democracy hero.

"Jimmy, he was talking about fighting against people like you," added Manuel who served 13 years as finance minister and is planning minister in President Jacob Zuma's government.

Excerpts of Manuel's letter were published in The Star daily newspaper.

Coloureds were subject to apartheid's divisive race rules, including forced removals and separate housing, but were allowed more privileges than blacks.

They are the majority race in the Western Cape, which is the only province not governed by Zuma's ruling African National Congress (ANC).