In what may be an early April Fool’s Day joke, the website of the outspoken youth wing of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) was hacked on Wednesday afternoon.
Two days before April 1, a rogue statement on the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) site, www.ancyl.org.za, stated that ANCYL president Julius Malema had stepped down.
Posting under the name “the {Blah Blah} Protest group”, the latest item is dated for Tuesday and reads:
“After much thought I Julius Malema have decided to step down as ANC Youth league president.”
Seemingly rivalling the league for its notoriously badly spelled statements, the group goes on to list its “reasons” for Malema’s resignation.
- “I have brought my party the ANC in to disrepute
- I have disrespected my elders and have made a fool out of myself
- I promote Nationalization even though i have no concerpt of how it works or its blacklash to the economy
- I promote my own agenda over my country’s and parties
- I promote the singing racist songs to promote violence and un-rest in the country
- I do not consider youth issues”
The post concludes by saying: “It is with great hope that I step down and welcome a new era in the ANCYL, one where thought and vison inspire our country rather then racism and personal ambition destroy it.
Regards
Julius Malema.”
Malema is a regular in local news for his controversial statements. His insistence on singing an old struggle song containing the lyric “kill the boer”, despite it being ruled as hate speech by the Equality Court, has angered local political and civil society groups. Juju, as he has been nicknamed by the public, is also pressing the ANC and the government to make nationalisation of mines official policy.
Guest DJ
The rest of the site remained as normal, showing previous postings by the league — including a note about Malema guest-deejaying on popular radio station Metro FM. His appearance on the station’s afternoon drive started at 3pm on Wednesday, a few hours after the news of the hack was first broken on Twitter.
“ANC youth league site hacked or has Julius Malema seen the light? seems to be his most sensible comment yet,” said one tweeter, while another added: “Pity their grammer [sic] is crap.”
Soon after the news broke the site was taken down by its hosting company. The offending article was then removed just in time for the “Juju Drive”, as it was dubbed in a special jingle, to start on Metro FM with SABC presenter Minenhle Dlamini.
“Metro FM is where you’re at, you just listened to a nice song here, proudly South African,” intoned Malema after an extended play of house music.
His co-host announced an “ask anything” section of the show, welcoming callers to pose questions to Malema.
“Any question,” confirmed Malema. “Except political questions. No political questions today; we must relax.”
The pair started off the show announcing a planned interview with Sports and Recreation Minister Fikile Mbalula, a former ANCYL president and the youth league’s candidate for secretary general of the ANC in 2012.