News / Africa
Malema attacks 'questionable' Zuma
27 Jul 2012 at 05:52hrs | Views
EXPELLED ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema has launched another blistering attack on President Jacob Zuma, this time questioning his multiple marriages, the decision to drop charges against him and describing the president as a "questionable leader".
Delivering a lecture on former president Nelson Mandela at a packed Cape Peninsula University of Technology lecture hall yesterday, Malema said Zuma's multiple marriages had turned South Africa into a laughing stock internationally, and undermined the rights of women.
If a man can marry four (wives), it means that even a woman should be allowed to do the same," Malema said, to loud cheers from the largely student crowd.
He said Zuma had continued "bombarding" South Africa with his "culture", and had gotten married "every December".
Malema said Mandela, who is of royal lineage, had never used his culture to define his leadership.
"When he (Mandela) assumed the position of president, he knew that the unity of the country was more important than the promotion of his culture," Malema charged.
Malema said Zuma was yet to answer the case of corruption against him, stemming from the government's controversial arms deal, for which his former financial advisor and businessman Schabir Schaik was jailed.
He repeated an earlier claim that the tapes used by the National Prosecutions Authority to drop charges against Zuma back in 2009 did not exist - otherwise these should be released to DA leader Helen Zille, who has won a Supreme Court of Appeals case compelling the NPA to release the tapes to the DA.
Malema further claimed that the dropping of charges against Zuma on the eve of the 2009 elections, which ushered him into power, was as a result of "political" pressure applied on the NPA.
He said the ANC could not legitimately claim to be fighting corruption when it was led by a "questionable leader".
"Every time he stands up to speak about corruption, people look the other side and say: 'look who's talking!'"
Drawing comparisons with Zuma's peers, Malema said when Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe's partner Gugu Mtshali was accused of corruption, Motlanthe had called for an investigation by the Public Protector into the allegations.
"That's statesmanship, that's being honourable, that is being a man who takes the office of the president very seriously," Malema said.
Delivering a lecture on former president Nelson Mandela at a packed Cape Peninsula University of Technology lecture hall yesterday, Malema said Zuma's multiple marriages had turned South Africa into a laughing stock internationally, and undermined the rights of women.
If a man can marry four (wives), it means that even a woman should be allowed to do the same," Malema said, to loud cheers from the largely student crowd.
He said Zuma had continued "bombarding" South Africa with his "culture", and had gotten married "every December".
Malema said Mandela, who is of royal lineage, had never used his culture to define his leadership.
"When he (Mandela) assumed the position of president, he knew that the unity of the country was more important than the promotion of his culture," Malema charged.
Malema said Zuma was yet to answer the case of corruption against him, stemming from the government's controversial arms deal, for which his former financial advisor and businessman Schabir Schaik was jailed.
He repeated an earlier claim that the tapes used by the National Prosecutions Authority to drop charges against Zuma back in 2009 did not exist - otherwise these should be released to DA leader Helen Zille, who has won a Supreme Court of Appeals case compelling the NPA to release the tapes to the DA.
Malema further claimed that the dropping of charges against Zuma on the eve of the 2009 elections, which ushered him into power, was as a result of "political" pressure applied on the NPA.
He said the ANC could not legitimately claim to be fighting corruption when it was led by a "questionable leader".
"Every time he stands up to speak about corruption, people look the other side and say: 'look who's talking!'"
Drawing comparisons with Zuma's peers, Malema said when Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe's partner Gugu Mtshali was accused of corruption, Motlanthe had called for an investigation by the Public Protector into the allegations.
"That's statesmanship, that's being honourable, that is being a man who takes the office of the president very seriously," Malema said.
Source - sowetanlive
