Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi on Tuesday blasted Africa National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) president Julius Malema, calling him an ”ill-bred brat”.
”Julius Malema is no more than an ill-bred brat whose behaviour is not only un-African, but crude by the standards of any culture in the world.
”What worries one is that the ruling party uses him to denigrate those they have targeted for denigration and insults,” Buthelezi said in a lengthy statement.
He said Malema was allowed to insult former president Thabo Mbeki in the presence of current ANC president Jacob Zuma and other leaders of the ruling party.
”They did not even give him a slap on the wrist for such unacceptable behaviour. In fact, the ANC used him as their instrument … [against Mbeki], because it was Julius Malema who announced to the whole of South Africa that Mr Mbeki must go.
”So Mr Malema is the ANC’s spoilt brat, and he thinks he can take on me because he did what he did to [former] president Mbeki.”
Buthelezi also expressed his resentment at being compared with Zimbabwean Zanu-PF leader Robert Mugabe and being called a dictator, adding that it was not up to Malema to call on him to retire.
”I was elected by the conferences of the IFP, not that of the ANC Youth League of which he is president. I would assume that being leader of the youth wing of the ANC, he should know that I announced my retirement in 2004 and the conference, without one dissent, urged me to continue,” he said, asserting that Malema had no say over the leadership of the IFP. — Sapa