ANC slams Malema for telling residents to ‘fight the ANC’

Cape Town - The ANC on Monday accused EFF leader Julius Malema of inciting violence by telling the public to fight the ruling party.

“Julius Malema’s latest outrageous and disturbingly irresponsible public outburst calling for communities involved in protests to burn the offices of the ANC rather than public property, once again prove that the EFF leader lacks the necessary maturity, wisdom and temperament to lead anything,” national spokesperson Zizi Kodwa said in a statement.

He said Malema was leading a toxic campaign of destruction, hate, and incitement of public violence.

For a Member of Parliament to use a public platform to call for violence and anarchy was a “shameless demonstration of lack of patriotism,” Kodwa said.

However, a News24 reporter who reported on Malema’s speech at the community meeting in Gugulethu on Sunday, quoted the EFF leader as saying: “Never, ever burn down schools, clinics and community halls. Take ownership of them. If you have a problem with the councillor, go to them and fight with them.

“You know where the ANC offices are, where the DA is, where the EFF is situated. Fight with them. Leave property alone,” Malema said.

ANC slams Malema for telling residents to ‘fight the ANC’

Malema told Gugulethu residents that those who burned down buildings, including schools, were misdirecting their anger. He called on the hundreds of supporters who came to hear him, to protect public buildings from those who wanted to burn them down.

“You are burning money that you don’t have. These are your taxes. These buildings don’t belong to Zuma. He will go. They don’t belong to the ANC councillor. He will go and the buildings will remain,” the reporter quoted Malema as saying.

A TimesLive article on the same event was headlined: “Don’t burn schools, burn the ANC: Malema”. In that article, Malema was however not quoted using the words “burn the ANC”.
Source: News24