'We love President Mugabe than all those Zanu-PF cowards,' says Malema party

Cape Town - The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) on Wednesday continued its assault on Zimbabwe's Zanu-PF, saying it rejected the phenomenon of "lead to the grave" that the ruling party had "created out of President Robert Mugabe".

The EFF slammed Zimbabwe's Zanu-PF led government for defending Mugabe's presidency, even when it was clear that the veteran leader could no longer deliver effectively because of age.  

"The EFF rejects the defence of President Mugabe by the Zimbabwean… After failing to provide sound defence from our criticism of their blind worship of President Mugabe, Zanu-PF has now resorted to using government platforms," EFF's Mbuyiseni Ndlozi said in a statement.  

This came after the Zimbabwean government reacted angrily to EFF leader Julius Malema's recent call for Mugabe, 92, to step down.

Malema accused Zanu-PF party officials of being "cowards" for failing to tell the nonagenarian to relinquish power.

In retaliation, Zimbabwe's information minister Christopher Mushohwe issued a statement condemning Malema and describing him as "a loud mouthed Gucci" who must be preoccupied with rebuilding his image in South Africa's body politic.

'Why respond to irrelevant issues?'

"Simply, he [Malema] is nothing more than a shrunken, talkative joke," Mushohwe said.

To add to that, a Zanu-PF lawmaker Psychology Maziwisa described the EFF leader as a "little irrelevant man, who is trying desperately to gain political mileage in South Africa by insulting a great man in Zimbabwe".

But Ndlozi said his party would maintain its position on Mugabe's leadership.  

"We want to state, without any fear of contradiction that we reject the phenomenon of 'lead to the grave' that Zanu-PF has created out of President Mugabe. In defence of this phenomenon, all Zanu-PF and now the Zimbabwean government has said is that EFF and CIC Julius Malema are irrelevant. The question is why then take government time and resources to respond to irrelevant things? The truth is, they have taken time to respond precisely because our criticism has actually heat home," Ndlozi said.

He said that there was no amount of propaganda that could change the fact that "President Mugabe is old and should not be working in the high office of President. What is worse is that Zanu-PF has even nominated him as their presidential candidate for 2018 elections".

'We will never tell lies'

Zanu-PF endorsed Mugabe as its candidate for the 2018 elections during the party's annual congress in Masvingo last year.

He was endorsed by all party structures.

Mugabe has been in power since independence from British colonial rule in 1980 and has avoided naming a successor or laying out plans to retire.

He once jokes that he would rule until he turned 100.

"We will never tell lies; Zanu-PF is afraid of the truth and they all live a lie. But all lies have short legs and now they are exposed because they actually have no political reasons why they have kept President Mugabe in power even when he cannot physically do it. They also have no actual defense to our charge that theirs is a politics of personality cult," Ndlozi said.

He, however, maintained that the EFF had "love" for Mugabe.

"We love President Mugabe than all those Zanu-PF cowards who surround him because we tell him the truth. The EFF are the only ones that actually care for the old man; we are caring enough to tell him to go rest and hand in the baton to others."

Ndlozi continued: "The African Revolution must disabuse itself from the politics of personality cult and the reactionary phenomenon of "lead to the grave"; the time for President Mugabe to step down passed a long time ago. In the word of the CIC Julius Malema, we repeat that "grandpa, you must let go!."