EFF leader Julius Malema. Picture: Twitter (@EFFSouthAfrica)
According to Zimbabwean publication News Day, Zanu-PF spokesperson Simon Khaya Moyo branded Malema a “restless and careless” political novice after he took Grace Mugabe’s side – rather than that of President Emmerson Mnangagwa – at a press conference in Harare, while paying his respects to its late founding leader, her late husband Robert Mugabe.
“That Malema is now a decorated stooge at the mercy of our yesteryear colonisers is now a public secret as exhibited by his constant verbiage against African leaders and their respective countries”, he said.
“Charlatans and figures of controversy need not disfigure such illustrious virtues which define the larger-than-life comrade RG Mugabe,” said Zanu-PF spokesperson Simon Khaya Moyo in a statement.”
Malema’s utterances “disparage the African values and ethos which he stood for”.
“It is sad the he used the Zimbabwean soil, the bastion of revolutionary mantra and the fortress of black consciousness, to lampoon the regional body, Southern African Development Community (SADC) leadership and its ethos.”
“In that regard, the party finds it reprehensible for Julius Malema to use such a solemn and sombre occasion to spew political propaganda and to score cheap political mileage.”
“It is sad to have a puppet of the same colonisers [Mugabe] fought in the form of Malema to demean all he solidly stood for.”
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This follows Malema accusing Mnangagwa and Zanu PF of having “tormented” Mugabe until his “last day”.
“[Grace Mugabe] must protect president Mugabe’s legacy with everything, against any form of opportunism which would want to ride behind the legacy of president Mugabe, even when they tormented him to the last day,” he said at a press conference in Harare, which can be seen in a video on Harare Live.
“I think there are others who envy him. And there can only be one Mugabe. These are chancers, so they shouldn’t even try to be like him. They won’t even come anywhere close to him,” he added.
Mnangagwa and the Mugabe family were engaged in a dispute over the late leader’s burial, but the rift between the former Zanu PF leader and his party does not appear to end there.
At an EFF memorial for Mugabe, his nephew Patrick Zhuwao, a former minister in Zimbabwe, said Mugabe “did not die in Zimbabwe because of Emmerson Mnangagwa. [Zanu-PF] tormented him. They made him suffer and decided to call him a traitor. Now they want to pontificate over him. They did not want him in Zim”.
Malema has made his unwavering support for Mugabe clear. At the EFF memorial service, he highlighted only the positive aspects of the former Zimbabwean leader’s legacy. Both before and at the memorial, he made it clear that he isn’t interested in holding Mugabe responsible for the controversial aspects of his rule.
Malema has called Mugabe a “perfect human being“, said that history will absolve him, and expressed the view that it was sanctions and the IMF, not Mugabe, which led to Zimbabwe’s problems.
(Compiled by Daniel Friedman)
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