Malema upset after SABC ‘censors’ live broadcast
ECONOMIC Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema accused the SABC yesterday of censoring a live media conference in which he voiced his opinion about the broadcaster’s former chief operating officer, Hlaudi Motsoeneng.
Malema was speaking at a media briefing after the third EFF plenum meeting at the weekend.
Pulling no punches‚ he called the ANC a party “where people with brains are sidelined”.
He said the party leadership had become cloudy and referred to Motsoeneng as the crème de la crème of the ANC.
“There are no brains‚ they are gone, and if there are no brains . . .” he said – and suddenly the feed disappeared.
Commentators were scathing on social media‚ accusing the broadcaster of censorship.
The EFF official account ? @EFFSouthAfrica‚ relayed Malema’s reaction in a series of tweets.
“#Malema: we were live on SABC now but immediately when I spoke about Hlaudi we were cut off. That is the situation SA is in.”
“#Malema: SABC now has us back live because I exposed them.”
There was no immediate reaction from the SABC.
Malema also called the recent campaign for Absa to pay back the money “nonsense”.
“The Absa nonsense is not legit and I will not be told by opposition of the EFF on how to act‚” he said in reference to calls for the red berets to join the campaign.
“We will hold Absa accountable through our own terms and at our own time. The people calling for the occupation of Absa [to] pay back the money are on the Gupta payroll.” This follows the leaking of the public protector’s provisional report, which found that Absa should repay R2.25-billion to the fiscus for an apartheid-era Reserve Bank bailout for Bankorp.
Malema pointed out that long before the leak of the report the EFF had said it would “occupy” Absa.
In November 2015‚ Malema announced that the EFF had established a special task team which would start work last year.
At the time, he said his party would occupy every branch of Absa until it was given a practical programme of action on how the bank was going to intervene to resolve the inequalities in society.
“We targeted Absa because it is the amalgamated banks of the Broederbond ... who operated during apartheid and stole our money on the eve of democracy‚” he said then.
Malema did not give a date or time.
He reiterated this yesterday‚ saying the EFF would not announce when it would occupy Absa.
Malema said the day that the EFF occupied Absa it would be news all over the world.
He also slammed new public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane‚ despite his party approving her appointment last year.
Challenging whether she was upholding the independence of the office‚ he said: “There is nothing Busi Mkhwebane will do to protect the public purse or the people of South Africa.
“The public protector is following in the footsteps of the SABC. From public broadcaster to state broadcaster.”
“From today we must stop calling Busi public protector‚ we must call her state protector.”