Government yesterday blasted South Africa’s Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema for openly declaring his support for violent protestors whose ill-fated “shutdown of Zimbabwe” was funded by Western imperialist governments.
This comes after Malema recently tweeted that his party was on the side of the violent protesters and that they were going to win “just like the country did in 1980”.
In a statement, Information, Media and Broadcasting Services Minister Dr Christopher Mushohwe said Malema’s laughable attempt at “turning himself into a trans-border politician on behalf of reactionary forces in the region and beyond”, exposed his agenda and ignorance of regional politics.
“Zimbabweans cannot understand how a politician who purports to support land restitution in his own country, South Africa, and in other countries in the region affected by settler colonialism, can suddenly turn around to support and celebrate politics and political activities which white activists of erstwhile settler landowners in Zimbabwe represented by Ben Freeth find hospitable.
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| Government blasts Julius Malema |
“Mush worse, Zimbabweans who cherish peace and reject politics of violent and destructive demonstrations as shown by their rejection of the failed lockdown called for this week, cannot understand, let alone appreciate, how a politician masquerading as an economic freedom fighter sides with fringe political upstarts bent on reversing the gains of the liberation struggle.”
Dr Mushohwe said Malema should be reminded that Zimbabwe’s 1980 victory did not just happen but was brought by the revolutionary Zanu-PF.
He said Zanu-PF’s status as a defender of the black majority cannot be “challenged by storm-in-tea-cup politicians of Malema’s ilk who now delight and revel in the company of apartheid political bed-mates”.
He said Zimbabweans had no time for Malema’s cheap talk whose party “attracts support and sponsorship of oppressive racial capital, while falsely dressing themselves in the garb of exploited workers”.
“A politician who cannot appreciate that Zimbabwe has been under crippling illegal Western sanctions for more than a decade and half, simply for recovering stolen land from its people, cannot be expected to be an ally of the Zimbabwean people. Nor can he be expected to understand the dynamics that shape the politics of our country, let alone to be counted upon as a useful voice in the continuing struggle we are bound to win,” Dr Mushohwe said.
He said Zimbabwe will survive and prosper through its own efforts and with the support of genuine allies and friends.
