President Jacob Zuma has slammed the African National Congress Youth League over its calls for regime change in Botswana.
‘If you start talking about sending a command or unit to go in and engage in political activity to change the government of a country, that is a very serious statement. You therefore need a different kind of intervention to ordinary political discussion,” he told City Press in an interview.
The call made by Malema was “very serious” and not in keeping with ANC policies, Zuma said.
“We are not going to be like the apartheid government and interfere with our neighbours. We promote good neighbourliness and we don’t interfere in the internal affairs of other people,” he said.
Last week, Malema said the youth league was sending a team to Botswana to consolidate local opposition parties, as it believed the government was “in full cooperation with imperialists” and was undermining the “African agenda”.
On Saturday the ANCYL abruptly said it was withdrawing its statement and it apologised to the ANC.
League spokesperson Floyd Shivambu said on Saturday that as the newly-elected leadership of the ANCYL, they were “looking forward to engaging with the leadership of the ANC to thoroughly comprehend the rules of engagement and how we take up issues, particularly on public discourse”.
Zuma told the City Press that Malema’s comments suggested that the ANCYL saw the Botswana government as illegitimate.
‘You have to understand democracy’
“The ANCYL looks at Botswana as if the government was not elected by the people of Botswana.
“If you are a democrat, you have to understand democracy,” he said.
Zuma said Botswana regularly held elections and its government was elected by the people.
ANC spokesperson Jackson Mthembu said it was now up to party officials to decide whether the apology “would undo the damage” caused by Malema’s statements, the Sunday Independent reported.
“After the ANC rebuked the youth league, they defied [the ANC] and went on until the president spoke on the matter today [Saturday]. We are shocked that there is now such an apology,” Mthembu told the newspaper. – Sapa