Malema warns over Zille, the ‘Zuma of the DA’

Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema has issued a grim warning to the Democratic Alliance, saying it would stop voting with them in coalition municipalities if they continued with their “arrogance” in the councils as well as in dealing with Helen Zille.

The bone of contention was that Zille was suspended from the party but retained her position as premier of the Western Cape after being disciplined for a tweet largely interpreted as defending colonialism.

This, Malema said, made Zille the “Zuma of the DA”. He said despite calls for her to step down, Zille and the party’s federal executive were purportedly putting her ahead of the DA’s voters.

But the DA federal chairperson James Selfe appealed to Malema not to play the king-maker card in the councils they vote in together.

“We can’t have dealt with it any differently. There is no tradition in our constitution or the law that we could have used to deal with this in any other way,” said Selfe in explaining why Zille was suspended but still remained premier of the Western Cape.

“Secondly, there are avenues that we have open for discussion with the EFF.

“We have had conversations with the EFF and this issue has been raised, but it is not in anyone’s interest for the government of Tshwane and Johannesburg to be reverted back to the ANC.”

Malema was also decrying ongoing squabbles between their coalition partners in Nelson Mandela Bay, which the politician blamed on the DA’s “white arrogance”.

“They don’t know that if the UDM gets out of that coalition, it will be out of bitterness of whiteness. When the voting of no confidence happens and we are voting for a new mayor, we are going to fold our arms in Nelson Mandela Bay,” Malema warned.

He also said Zille should resign.

“If she was indeed thinking she was treated unfairly she must resign and still take the DA to court, just to clear her name.

“But to allow her party, which she formed and said she loved so much, to deteriorate in her name ... that is no different from Jacob Zuma. And she is compromising the 2019 project of removing the ANC.”