FILE: EFF leader Julius Malema is greeted by Winnie Mandela during registration ahead of the opening of parliament in Cape Town, 20 May 2014. Picture: Refilwe Modise
EFF leader Julius Malema and late struggle icon Winnie Madikizela-Mandela clearly shared a special relationship, that of a young firebrand looking up to the older one.
The meaningfulness of this relationship was communicated in Malema’s speech on Saturday, which roused mourners at Orlando Stadium.
Several times, he asked Madikizela-Mandela for a signal on what to do about the issues Malema found pressing and the people who “betrayed” her, and punctuated his speech by calling out to the struggle stalwart as “mama”.
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It was effective and memorable, and it has caught on with Twitter users, who have refashioned Malema’s request for a signal from “mama” for their own purposes. And so the #JuliusMalemaChallenge was born.
These are some of the tweets the EFF leader has spawned with the challenge: