Five members of the Congressional Black Caucus wanted to see Beyoncé and other stars perform in concert late last year, according to US congressional disclosure records.
The lawmakers were US Reps. Gregory Meeks of New York, Barbara Lee of California, Bobby Rush of Illinois, Terri Sewell of Alabama and Hank Johnson of Georgia, according to the data obtained by Fox News.
The five attended the concert held from December 1-3 to celebrate the centenary birth of the late Nelson Mandela to “raise awareness of global poverty”.
In reality, the much-publicised event exposed the criminal underbelly of South Africa under ANC rule, the gross incompetence of its police officials and gangs of “hyenas” outside the stadium terrorising concertgoers.
Some 58 heads of state attended the “Global Citizen” concert and got a taste of the kind of anarchy that reigns with hundreds of screaming concertgoers fleeing from gangs of black armed robbers.
The politically correct event, took place at the huge FNB stadium at Nasrec, just south of Johannesburg. The stadium is almost within walking distance of Soweto, the country’s largest urban concentration of blacks where gangs operate with impunity and where 93 percent of electricity is routinely stolen from the municipality.
The black lawmakers appeared in a photo that black US activist Reverend Al Sharpton, who also attended the event, posted on his Twitter page. Other celebrities at the event included Oprah Winfrey and Daily Show host Trevor Noah, an ex-South African.
Cellphone communications broke down during the event, adding to the chaos. One young black vlogger from Johannesburg, known as Lasizwe, attended the concert. Afterwards, he posted a YouTube comment entitled “I almost got killed at Global Citizen”. In the video at around 5:17 he confirms that “… in the midst of all of these things, the South African Police Service was nowhere to be found”.
But it appears that the American guests were less than interested in what had really happened. They instead repeated a few familiar slogans. “In the spirit of Nelson Mandela, we pledge to keep working with our colleagues in Congress, across the country and across the aisle, to make sure that every child in Africa and at home has the opportunity to thrive and grow in a safe and prosperous world,” Meeks told the Examiner.
“As a Senior member of the Foreign Affairs Comm[ittee] who understands the importance of both multilateral & bilateral relations on trade & foreign policy, developing that relationship is crucial,” Meeks said when asked how the trip was related to his congressional duties.
The National Legal and Policy Center, a watchdog group, called the trip to South Africa a “mockery”.
“These members of Congress that were given an all-expense paid vacation to party with Oprah, Jay Z, and Beyoncé in South Africa are claiming with a straight face this was needed to help poor children around the world live better lives,” Tom Anderson, president of the NLPC’s Government Integrity Project, told Examiner.
“This was in fact, a mockery of House ethics rules on gifts and travel, the truly poor, and all Americans that expect members of Congress to live not only by the letter of the law but by the spirit and intentions of the rules of the House of Representatives.”
A representative for Sewell responded that her travel “was pre-approved by the House Ethics Committee and was not paid for at taxpayer expense” and that “Rep. Sewell and several other members attended the Global Citizen Mandela 100 Festival, a platform for world leaders to speak out against racial injustice and inequity, and voice their support for international assistance for underprivileged populations”.
According to the travel itinerary, the congressional members were in South Africa for one full day and used two partial days for travel.
I’m in South Africa headed to the Global Citizen Festival with Congressional Black Caucus members Greg Meeks, Barbara Lee, Bobby Rush & Hank Johnson & my @MSNBC colleague Joy Reid. #GlobalCitizenFestivalSA pic.twitter.com/vnYAbI8J09
— Reverend Al Sharpton (@TheRevAl) December 2, 2018
