Mandla Mandela lays into Trump as ‘madman in White House’

ANC MP Mandla Mandela, the grandson of Nelson Mandela, has blasted US President Donald Trump, calling him a madman.

In the scathing statement, Mandela wrote that Trump had defied all UN resolutions and had declared Jerusalem as the capital of “apartheid Israel”.

Mandela was welcoming the new Iranian ambassador to SA, Bismillahi Rahmani Raheem, during a virtual event.

His comments come as Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, alleges in his book the 45th US president said Nelson Mandela had been “no leader”.

The ANC has condemned Trump, describing him as divisive and “a person who, himself, is not a model of competent leadership”.

Mandela said the world was once again witnessing the alleged machinations of global US imperialism at play.

“In the space of 23 years three USA presidents [George] Bush Jnr, [Bill] Clinton and [Barack] Obama invaded nine Muslim countries, killing 11-million people.

“Now there is a madman in the White House who has defied all UN resolutions and unilaterally, illegally and unjustly declared Jerusalem as the capital of apartheid Israel and tries to hoodwink the world into supporting the hoax of the century to wipe Palestine from the map,” Mandela said.

He said the US had a self-serving agenda in the Middle East.

“The hypocrisy of nuclear disarmament of the Islamic Republic of Iran whilst shoring up the military and nuclear capability of apartheid Israel makes it patently clear what the USA agenda is in the Middle East.

“We draw strength and courage from the fact that they once did likewise with the apartheid regime in SA, but that is now consigned to the rubbish bin of history.”

He praised Iranian leaders as beacons of hope for the oppressed. Mandela said the relationship between SA and Iran was deep-rooted and profound.

“It was forged in the cauldron of our struggle for justice and freedom.”

He said Iran was perhaps one of the only, if not the only, country in the world to have passed an act of parliament enforcing sanctions against apartheid SA and apartheid Israel.

“This greatly boosted the work of the global anti-apartheid movement and today we must advocate likewise to support the just cause of the Palestinian people to bring a swift end to what my grandfather President Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela called ‘the greatest moral issue of our time’.

“We want to express our sincere gratitude to all who have served the cause of building strong relationships between our two countries.”