News / Local
Malema dismisses Mugabe gifts rumours
13 Mar 2012 at 12:03hrs | Views
HARARE - Controversial African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) president Julius Malema has dismissed reports that he gets gifts from President Robert Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party.
Malema dismissed reports that he was getting money, encouragement and training in his push for empowerment laws styled along the Zanu-PF championed indegenisation laws in South Africa.
"There are people who say I get trained by Zanu-PF and President Robert Mugabe, I don't," said Malema in an interview with South African Broadcasting Corporation's (SABC) political editor Vuyo Mvoko on Sunday night.
"They say this beret style of dressing is from Zimbabwe but I don't get trained by Zanu PF or Mugabe."
Malema has been spotting a Che Guevara style beret and an ANC yellow T-shirt emblazoned with Nelson Mandela's image ever since he was suspended from ANC.
Although the militant youth leader, who has since been expelled from the ANC, denies receiving gifts from the former ruling party the last time he visited Zimbabwe in April 2010, Malema received a herd of cattle from Zanu PF as a gift.
Ironically, when he was asked in the Sunday evening interview what he will do with his life if his appeal against expulsion from the ANC fails, Malema said he will retreat to his Limpopo farm and concentrate on cattle farming.
During his visit to Zimbabwe in April, Malema received five-star treatment from Mugabe and his party members which was capped with a visit to State House where he met with Mugabe.
The Zanu PF leader last week appeared to be tacitly giving the 31-year-old youth leader some moral support when he said the South African government has failed to uplift the lives of poor black South Africans.
"People of Soweto are still poor. We do not know when their lives will improve. Poverty in Soweto will never be alleviated through getting jobs.
"It will only be alleviated through land and empowerment," said Mugabe while addressing an annual chiefs conference last week in Bulawayo.
"They [blacks] do not have land because their country's Constitution did not give them the right to land like our constitution. We included the issue of land in our constitution in 1980."
Mugabe's message resonated with Malema's push for black empowerment, a theme which has won him both friends and foes during his two terms at the helm of the ANC youth league.
Malema dismissed reports that he was getting money, encouragement and training in his push for empowerment laws styled along the Zanu-PF championed indegenisation laws in South Africa.
"There are people who say I get trained by Zanu-PF and President Robert Mugabe, I don't," said Malema in an interview with South African Broadcasting Corporation's (SABC) political editor Vuyo Mvoko on Sunday night.
"They say this beret style of dressing is from Zimbabwe but I don't get trained by Zanu PF or Mugabe."
Malema has been spotting a Che Guevara style beret and an ANC yellow T-shirt emblazoned with Nelson Mandela's image ever since he was suspended from ANC.
Although the militant youth leader, who has since been expelled from the ANC, denies receiving gifts from the former ruling party the last time he visited Zimbabwe in April 2010, Malema received a herd of cattle from Zanu PF as a gift.
During his visit to Zimbabwe in April, Malema received five-star treatment from Mugabe and his party members which was capped with a visit to State House where he met with Mugabe.
The Zanu PF leader last week appeared to be tacitly giving the 31-year-old youth leader some moral support when he said the South African government has failed to uplift the lives of poor black South Africans.
"People of Soweto are still poor. We do not know when their lives will improve. Poverty in Soweto will never be alleviated through getting jobs.
"It will only be alleviated through land and empowerment," said Mugabe while addressing an annual chiefs conference last week in Bulawayo.
"They [blacks] do not have land because their country's Constitution did not give them the right to land like our constitution. We included the issue of land in our constitution in 1980."
Mugabe's message resonated with Malema's push for black empowerment, a theme which has won him both friends and foes during his two terms at the helm of the ANC youth league.
Source - dailynews
