South African Officials Accused of Scapegoating Poor, Black Man for Parliament Fire

South African officials are scapegoating a poor, unemployed black man for the fire that broke out in Parliament on Sunday and was only extinguished on Tuesday, according to the man’s lawyer.

Zandlie Christmas Mafe, 49, made his first court appearance yesterday after President Cyril Ramaphosa and Minister of Public Works Patricia de Lille told the media that a man had been caught on surveillance videos and that the Hawks, a specialized police unit, had made an arrest in connection with the blaze.

But Mafe’s lawyer said that the post-apartheid government is simply picking on his client because he was seen nearby. Local news outlet Independent Online reported:

Zandile Mafe’s legal representative, Luvuyo Godla, says his client is not the person who was supposed to be apprehended in connection with the Parliament building fire.

…

“This one is a scapegoat.

“What interest would that poor man have in burning (the) Parliament (building)?

“How would that person get access to (the) Parliament (building) and how would he know where to go in (the) Parliament (building) and burn?

“It’s clearly a scapegoat.

“This is the failure of the executive and legislature, not that poor person.

Critics of the government’s response to the blaze have questioned why the building’s sprinkler system did not work, after being tested late last year; why the fire took so long to contain, and how an arsonist would have infiltrated past security, if indeed arson is found to be the cause of the fire.

One opposition party, the radical left-wing Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), is being criticized after one of its leaders described the fire as “beautiful.” The party wants Parliament to be moved away from the cosmopolitan coastal city of Cape Town and to the country’s administrative capital in Pretoria.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book is How Not to Be a Sh!thole Country: Lessons from South Africa. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.