JUSTICE MALALA: In the war on principle, hypocrites such as Julius Malema are winning
‘Champions of the poor’ Malema and Floyd Shivambu have their palms held out to be the first to take, and take again, from the poor of VBS Mutual Bank and tobacco smugglers
Extract
The year 2018 has been the year of the political hypocrite.
Take Julius Malema, the leader of the indignantly and loudly pro-poor EFF. His wife reportedly lives in a sumptuous flat in Johannesburg in a complex owned by an alleged tobacco smuggler. He doesn’t see anything wrong with this. He tells us that he fears for the lives of his children. If he fears for the safety of his children perhaps they should not be living in a controversial alleged tobacco smuggler’s house, no? Malema is deflecting and we would be fools to agree with this nonsense. The arrangement stinks to high heaven.
The “commander in chief” (that’s Malema’s official title at the EFF — doesn’t it remind you of Idi Amin, who called himself “His excellency president for life, king of Scotland, lord of all the beasts of the Earth and fishes of the sea and conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in general and Uganda in particular”?) is part of a global phenomenon of lies and hypocrisy in politics. We now live in a world where politicians glibly compare themselves to Che Guevara and Thomas Sankara at rallies, soaking up the adulation of the poor and desperate, while at home they lead lives akin to that of the ultra-corrupt late Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha. That is the hypocrisy of Malema and Floyd Shivambu. In their red overalls and the gargantuan words they crib hours before a parliamentary debate, they shout at Jacob Zuma: “Pay back the money! Pay back the money!” In the night they have their palms held out to be the first to take, and take again, from the poor of VBS Mutual Bank and from toba...
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