Durban - The EFF is set to commemorate Africa Day today by holding a picket at the French embassy in Pretoria to demand the immediate withdrawal of France from the African continent, particularly their influence in West Africa where it has former colonies.
Sinawo Thambo, national spokesperson of the EFF, said that their goal was to call for an end to French influence on the African continent, particularly in West Africa where it has former colonies and continues to try and micro-manage governments in that part of the African continent.
The European nation’s colonial tentacles had a huge reach across West, Central and North Africa, with countries such as Mali, Mauritania, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Chad, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Algeria, Morocco, Libya, Guinea and Niger among those colonised by the French.
“We are calling for France to desist from interfering in the affairs of Africa, but also that they must stop forcing nations which were colonised by them to pay colonial taxes.
“That is the primary aim of the picket, to say to France that we are able to govern our own affairs without any influence from our former colonisers and that will be the message that we put out there,” Thambo said.
SUNDAY TRIBUNE