Stop meddling in Zim affairs, Malema told
GOVERNMENT has reminded, in strongest terms, embattled South African opposition politician Mr Julius Malema to mind the business of his waning political career and stop meddling in Zimbabwe’s internal affairs.
In a statement yesterday, Information, Media and Broadcasting Services Minister Dr Chris Mushohwe said Mr Malema, who leads the Economic Freedom Fighters party, was a charlatan who by any stretch of imagination does not deserve to comment on President Mugabe.
Addressing journalists in South Africa on Monday, Mr Malema claimed that President Mugabe’s continued stay in power was not good for Zimbabwe, Sadc and what he called the African revolution project.
He further insulted ZANU-PF members, labelling them cowards for endorsing President Mugabe as the party’s presidential candidate for next year’s harmonised elections.
Government did not take Mr Malema’s strident attacks on the person of President Mugabe lightly and his unbridled and insatiable thirst for relevance in regional and continental politics.
Dr Mushohwe told Mr Malema that his remarks were irritating and uncalled for, describing him as an ignorant youth and a talkative joker.
“The Government of Zimbabwe finds quite irritating and uncalled for insulting statements by the so-called Economic Freedom Fighters leader, Julius Malema, directed at Zimbabwe, and at the person of President Mugabe,” said Dr Mushohwe.
“What made Malema’s statements irritatingly despicable was an informing
presumption that in spite of his threadbare, prodigal political career, he visualised himself as important enough to comment and pass judgment on the leadership credentials and political career of so iconic a figure as President Robert Gabriel Mugabe.
“His preposterous claim that his treacherous, pro-white, neo-colonial politics find inspiration in the figure and politics of President Mugabe is a hard-to-suffer insult. There is just no meeting point between the two politics, let alone between this puny, struggling person and President Mugabe.”
Dr Mushohwe continued: “This side of the Limpopo, Julius Malema shines as a loudmouthed “Gucci” revolutionary who acquired the infamy of deserting and betraying politics of liberation as espoused by the ANC. Clearly his inspiration lies elsewhere, and no amount of taping from the proud record of Zanu-PF and Zimbabweans, or of invoking the name of our leader and President, will grant him even a patina of respectability, whether at home, on the continent or abroad.
“Simply, he is nothing more than a shrunken, talkative joke. And in typical fashion of political charlatans, he seeks to make up for his inner political deficiencies by projecting himself as a trans-border, continental politician who fancies himself big and cute enough to pass comment and judgment on developments elsewhere on the continent.
“What an embarrassment, what miserly little grasp of continental politics he exhibits in the process! We pity and dismiss him as an ignorant youth, ‘rema’ in Shona, one abortively trying to punch above his life-long weight.”
Dr Mushohwe said it was important for Mr Malema to be reminded that President Mugabe enjoyed immeasurable support among Zimbabweans of all age groups.
He said this was evidenced by the recent colossal victory registered by Zanu-PF in the recent Bikita West by-election.
“We doubt whether he is even aware that his unsolicited comments on Zanu-PF and President Mugabe came barely twenty-four hours after a landslide by-election victory by the ruling Zanu-PF, the same revolutionary Party which President Mugabe leads,” he said.
“What a far-cry from his EFF thing which only survives through political patchwork with disguised, resurgent apartheid political formations, and of course through childish histrionics in Parliament. Hardly the stuff that makes bona fide revolutionaries, or delivers land to the landless black South Africans! Rather than worry about a delivering President Mugabe whose place in African history is assured, we counsel the pitiable Malema to concern himself with a deep introspection of where his politics of hobnobbing with vested white interests at home and abroad, leave him when the chapter on the African Revolution is finally written.
“For far worse than calendar age is the bane of political ageing afflicting so tender a political life and career! At such a rate, African history is sure to dismiss him.”
Meanwhile, the zanu-pf Youth League has rapped Mr Malema, for poking his nose in the running of the ruling party saying his utterances were unfortunate.
zanu-pf Youth League secretary, Cde Kudzanai Chipanga, said Mr Malema’s utterances were that of a ‘drunkard’.
“What he is doing in South Africa together with his cabal, we no longer take them as politicians, but as a drunkards club though we are not yet sure of what strong substance they are taking. It could be nyaope or marijuana,” said Cde Chipanga.
“We however, believe they are overdosing the drug that they are taking to the extent that he started talking about Zimbabwean politics in general and zanu-pf politics in particular responding to a specific question on South African politics.
“That shows the dangers of the drugs that they are taking. This justifies the stance taken by most African countries to ban these illicit drugs, so that we can have sober youths on the continent.”
Cde Chipanga said while zanu-pf used to relate with Mr Malema during the time he was in his country’s revolutionary party, African National Congress, they no longer have anything to do with him.
He said by leaving the ANC and forming his own EEF party, Mr Malema had become a renegade to revolutionary movements.
“He better mind his business and leave zanu-pf politics to zanu-pf members.
“The fact that he is no longer with our sister revolutionary party demands that he shuts his mouth when it comes to revolutionary politics in the Southern Africa region.
“He must never comment on revolutionary politics in Southern Africa because we have never commented on the drugs that he is taking,” said Cde Chipanga.
He castigated Mr Malema for his double standards by praising President Mugabe on one hand and speaking ill of him on the other.
“He even implored the youth of Zimbabwe to stand with President Mugabe through thick and thin. He is now singing from a different hymn book.
“As the Youth League, we no longer take Mr Malema seriously because anyone who does that, it is at their own peril.”
Zanu-PF national commissar Cde Saviour Kasukuwere was not answering his cell phone for comment despite repeated calls and WhatsApp messages sent to him.