Julius Malema Julius Malema
Thabiso Thakali
JOHANNESBURG: EFF leader Julius Malema has issued a “civil war” warning after he was confronted by a group of men armed with knobkieries.
Journalists and photographers were also caught in the crossfire, and had to duck for cover from machete-wielding men pelting with rocks.
This was as Malema and his party supporters came under attack during a walkabout at a hostel in Tembisa, Ekurhuleni, yesterday.
Malema and his supporters found themselves at the centre of chaotic scenes, gunshots and firing of rubber bullets at the Sethokga Hostel in the township.
This comes at a time of intense election campaigning with just over a month to go before the local government elections are held.
Yesterday, there was a stand-off between a large group of hostel dwellers who stopped Malema and his supporters in their tracks while entering the hostel.
This resulted in the police firing off live ammunition and rubber bullets as they tried to defuse the tension.
Malema was repeatedly advised by police to retreat.
However, a defiant Malema moved in and confronted one man and disarmed him in the glare of metro police. Malema then charged that the men were behind the violence that resulted in the death of two EFF supporters in May.
Police then tried to whisk Malema away with an nyala armoured vehicle, but he refused to leave his supporters behind.
He charged further, straight into where the men were forming a ring of steel to stop him.
Malema accused the police of encouraging political intolerance and violence by advising him to leave the area.
He said the “thugs” wanted to make it a no-go area.
Malema finally retreated and left the area. He went straight to the Rabasotho Police Station to issue a stern warning to the cops.
“You’re putting this country on a (path to) civil war because the day police refuse to act, that is the day we are going to be forced to defend ourselves.”
Malema said that he wasn’t going to “run away from thugs”.
He said if the violence was allowed to start at the hostel, it would soon spread around the country and turn into a big thing.
“We are asking that, before we defend ourselves, police must defend us. You failed in front of the whole country today to defend us against criminals.”
Malema then lost his cool when the police station’s cluster commander, Major General Vincent Leshabane, told him he had illegally marched to the station.
He accused Leshabane of not understanding the law and that he was “useless and should be fired”.
“We are being attacked there, you don’t do anything, but you come here in the comfort of your shirt and you tell us we must apply for marching.
“You tell us to apply when we are being killed, that is an irresponsible statement. What kind of cluster commander are you, clueless about the law? You are useless.”
The EFF leader pleaded with his supporters not to fight those who prevented them from campaigning at the hostel, but instead educated them.
He said his party would continue to campaign at the hostel so it could be converted into family units with flushing toilets and running water.
“But the idiots wielding spears don’t want changes because they enjoy criminality happening here.”
He said the attack and violence faced by his party supporters was about intolerance and an element of tribalism, but that the attackers were not linked to any political party.