BARNEY MTHOMBOTHI: Julius Malema has taken over leadership of Jacob Zuma’s looting brigands
Pravin Gordhan — diligent, upstanding competent and incorruptible, a rare breed in this era of instant gratification — is being let down by his side
It’s all beginning to make sense. With Jacob Zuma finally off centre stage, it’s been surprising that his followers still have the nerve to cock a snook at the new establishment. That they don’t seem to have lost their swagger. It’s now evident they have found a new hero in Julius Malema.
He has not only picked up the baton, but is deploying the propaganda tools left by Bell Pottinger even better than Zuma did — white monopoly capital, radical economic transformation and so on, with racist insults thrown in for good measure.
He’s now the leader of the looting brigands; defender of the miscreants who’ve laid waste to this country and made it the laughing stock of the world.
The evidence is overwhelming. Malema and the EFF have come to the defence of Tom Moyane, the man sent by Zuma to destroy the SA Revenue Service (Sars). He did such a good job of it that the government had to increase VAT to plug the hole in the fiscus caused by his actions. The first thing President Cyril Ramaphosa did on taking office was to suspend Moyane, and he has since sacked him. Malema and the EFF have taken up Moyane’s cause, with Dali Mpofu, the red berets’ chair, acting as his defence counsel. Mpofu was looking after Moyane’s interests at the Raymond Zondo commission last week. Supra Mahumapelo, one of Zuma’s most loyal supporters, who as premier presided over the North West’s descent into desolation and anarchy, has also run to Mpofu for protection from his party. State enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan, Zuma’s arch-nemesis who probably has more scars than anyone else from bruising fights with Zuma and his merry band of state capturers, is now in Malema’s crosshairs. G...
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