Young ID blasts Malema for attack on De Lille

CAPE TOWN - The Independent Democrats on Wednesday hit back at ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema for his "juvenile" attacks on ID leader Patricia de Lille.

"Behind the veneer of intoxication and madness lurks not a young lion," said Young Independent Democrats leader Xanthea Limberg.

Malema's personal attack on De Lille came as he failed "hopelessly to answer the tough questions about whether he is indeed stealing from the poor", she said.

Speaking at the University of Johannesburg on Tuesday, Malema

launched a personal attack on, among others, De Lille.

"The Young Independent Democrats is shocked that a young man of

Julius Malema's age would find it in himself to be so disrespectful

to someone who has devoted more than three decades of her life to

marginalised and ordinary South Africans," Limberg said.

"Although we have come to expect these kinds of insults from

Malema, it is no less shocking when he shows that he has no respect

for elders that truly care for the poor.

"We stand by our national president's comments that it is highly

likely that Julius Malema is stealing from the poor through tax

evasion.

"In fact, what was missing in his rant at Johannesburg

University yesterday was any kind of concrete response to the

serious allegations he faces," she said.

"This is an old trick of Malema's; in fact it is his only trick

-- where he says the kinds of things only a drunk or a madman would

say, creating the perception that he is an imbecile.

"But we must never be fooled -- behind the veneer of

intoxication and madness lurks not a young lion, but a ruthless

vulture circling for yet another tender so that he can continue to

steal from the poor through tax evasion," Limberg said.

Malema told students at the University of Johannesburg on

Tuesday: ""This Patricia who goes around saying I owe SARS [SA

Revenue Service], she must get her facts properly.

"She must go and build her own family and be concerned about the

taxes of her husband.

"If she has got a husband. Patricia doesn't look like a married

woman. There's no normal man who can marry Patricia. If Patricia

has got a husband, that husband must divorce Patricia and come and

look for well mannered and beautiful women in the ANC."

- Sapa