THE PRINCESS AND THE RABBLE ROUSER
Stylish minister has wardrobe advice for the beret brigade
THE gloves are off between Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema and Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu. Each has accused the other of style suicide.
Sisulu, considered South Africa’s best-dressed politician, was branded a “Barbie doll” by Malema in parliament last month.
She hit back this week, claiming Malema was juvenile and sexist — and tore a strip off the EFF for their red overalls.
“It has to do with respect — you don’t need to be told to throw your scruffy jeans to the back of the wardrobe when your grandmother is coming,” said an immaculately attired Sisulu this week in her parliamentary office.
“You don’t go to somebody’s party dressed in a nightgown.
“[In] those places that you respect you dress to show your respect, and parliament is one of those places we respect because we are appointed by the people to represent them,” she said.
“We are given a salary to make sure we are attired properly to represent them — it is not as though we are pleading poverty in parliament.”
Sisulu’s comments add to the furore over the EFF’s red “uniform” — overalls for men, domestic-worker outfits for women — which led to a scuffle in the Gauteng legislature three weeks ago. Two EFF members were injured when the police removed EFF members on the orders of the speaker for wearing “inappropriate attire”.
Two EFF members were expelled from the Eastern Cape legislature last month for wearing red overalls, hard hats and black gumboots, and the garb was censured by the KwaZuluNatal legislature speaker, Lydia Johnson.
EFF members said they were merely trying to “identify with the masses”.
You don’t go to somebody’s party in a nightgown
Sisulu said she was not perturbed by Malema’s ranting.
“I would regard Malema as a young child who is growing up and has all the energy of youth,” she said.
“In time, he will settle down. Everybody does. We have all been through that riotous and anarchic phase. He will not be 50 years old and still be riotous and anarchic.”
Sisulu also took aim at another of her snappy-dresser political rivals, DA defence spokesman David Maynier.
“When somebody junior like Maynier — who was a speech writer for [former DA leader] Tony Leon — suddenly takes chances on something I think he knows nothing about, then I am quick to respond.”
During her term as defence minister, Sisulu once referred to Maynier as having “a flea-infested body”.
Maynier shot back this week. “Lindiwe Sisulu did herself huge damage by becoming a symbol of excess and branding herself as cabinet’s ‘Imelda Marcos’,” he said, in a reference to the former Philippines first lady known for extravagant tastes, especially in shoes.
Malema could not be reached for comment.
Debate over unconventional fashion is nothing new.
In 2012, ANC MP Pinky Mncube set tongues wagging when she arrived at the opening of parliament in a red dress that revealed her cleavage and a rose tattoo on one breast.