African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) president Julius Malema remained in the eye of the storm on Tuesday after angering various groups with his latest comments.
The Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) criticised him for saying, at a commemorative event in Mafikeng, that the party had “hijacked” the Sharpeville protest from the ANC.
“The PAC history has been written in blood and no amount of cheap rhetoric shall erase it,” PAC spokesperson Lehlohonolo Shale said in a statement.
Malema on Monday reportedly said the Sharpeville uprising of 1960 — during which police shot and killed 69 people protesting against pass laws — was organised by the ANC but “hijacked” by the PAC.
ANC spokesperson Jackson Mthembu declined to comment.
The PAC’s Youth League challenged Malema to a public debate over the history of Sharpeville.
Mickey Mouse pop star’
Malema’s comments outraged another faction of the PAC’s youth, Payco, which described him as a “Mickey Mouse pop star” who “knows nothing” about the liberation struggle.
ANCYL spokesperson Magdalene Moonsamy, however, said Malema’s comments should be viewed in the context in which the Sharpeville protests took place.
“What he [Malema] was speaking about was the mobilisation prior to Sharpeville which was managed by the ANC,” she said, adding that the “truth had to be told” irrespective of how “uncomfortable” it was for some quarters.
The Afrikanerbond and the Freedom Front Plus both lodged fresh hate speech complaints against Malema with the SA Human Rights Commission and at the Equality Court.
Last Monday the Equality Court found Malema guilty of hate speech and harassment over comments he made about President Jacob Zuma’s rape accuser.
The Afrikanerbond’s complaint comes after Malema allegedly told young people at the Human Rights Day rally that “white boere” journalists had a vendetta against him.
Talk Radio 702 reported that Malema told the crowd “white boere” journalists were after him and that white journalists knew nothing about the struggle for freedom.
FF Plus spokesperson Anton Alberts said Malema singled out Afrikaner journalists as targets for his hate speech and suspicion-mongering.
“The FF Plus is of the opinion that Malema’s behavioural patterns are starting to adhere to the description of enticement to genocide in terms of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide.
“The party is monitoring the situation carefully with the objective of reporting the issue to the UN Human Rights Commission for their intervention,” Alberts said.
‘Prosecute Malema’
The ANC last week expressed concern about the FF Plus launching a “Prosecute Malema” campaign, which consists of gathering signatures via email and through a website where a protest letter can be signed.
These would be presented to Zuma in the hope of pressing the ANC into taking disciplinary steps against Malema.
AfriForum Youth called on its members to pray for Malema after one of his fans threatened online to rape and burn whites.
The organisation also unveiled a “ten-point plan” against Malema after one of his supporters, named Thato Mbateti Mbateti, referred to whites as “fucking white pigs” and threatens to rape “white whores” on networking website Facebook.
“We will rape them and rape them until their last breath is out. White kids will be burned … men will be burned,” the online post reads.
AfriForum Youth chairman Ernst Roets said he feared a backlash from the Afrikaner community and hoped to encourage the public to react to the latest incident in a pro-active manner.
Democratic Alliance national spokesperson Lindiwe Mazibuko called on the police to investigate the post and for Malema to distance himself from the comments. — Sapa