EFF leader Julius Malema says the politics he pursues are consistent and date back to his Congress of South African Students (Cosas) days.
This comes as he was recently labelled a “flip-flopper”.
“I stand for left politics. I stand for free education, land forces, our people. I said this even when we were burying the founding president of Cosas, Ephraim Mohale, I was very young. I spoke about the things I speak about now.
’’So we are given those titles by those who disagree with us to delegitimise us, so that when we make an input people do not listen to us because an impression has been created that you can change the following day,” said Malema during an interview with a local radio station on Tuesday.
Malema said they never changed to impress people from “when they were young until now”.
“I’ve held former president Jacob Zuma accountable, for instance. I said the highest punishment you can give to a sitting president is by removing him before they finish their term, it hurts them to the grave. Former president Thabo Mbeki till today he will never be over that.”
Malema did not deny that in the past he did say he wanted to see Zuma in jail. But two weeks ago, Malema said Zuma was an old man and did not deserve to go to jail.
“Yes, we did utter the words that Zuma must go to jail, because we wanted him to be accountable. But you can have Zuma in jail and not necessarily in the cells. You can give him house arrest, you can have him at home, that is still a sentence on its own.
’’It is still a punishment on its own. Because ours is a correctional service, what do you want to correct with an 80-year-old, because we correct you to reintegrate you back to society, that is why we spend money on you. So to spend money on an 80-year-old is a wasteful expenditure,” he said.
With regards to colonisers, Malema maintained that many black people suffer from the problem of self-hate, which he said was instilled by colonisers.
“What colonisers do, they make you in their image, so black as you are, you think you are British, you are white, that is why your English must be polished and be closer to them, because they have made you in their image, they even gave you their language, and anything else that does not look your coloniser is not an appealing thing,” he said.
Political Bureau