‘It was biologically impossible for me to be there’ — Malema responds to Ramaphosa

'We are not crybabies, we fight because we are fighters'

EFF leader Julius Malema denies insulting President Cyril Ramaphosa or his father.
EFF leader Julius Malema denies insulting President Cyril Ramaphosa or his father.
Image: EFF/ X

EFF leader Julius Malema has implied that President Cyril Ramaphosa was being a crybaby for complaining about the firebrand leader’s questioning of his personal and political credentials.

Malema argued that, in politics, the individual’s personal character was key to historical developments. This is the reason for having a Nelson Mandela Day: it's Madiba’s individual strength that people are drawn to reflect upon, and learn from him as a leader but more broadly as a human being.

“It’s a fact that in light of the government of national unity (GNU), which originates from the white capitalist establishment, we needed to appreciate your own historical involvement with these white people and a close attention to your personal and political journey gives a testament to the suspicion that this government was not actually created now, it came from long time ago because you were made a project a long time ago,” said Malema.

Ramaphosa on Monday accused Malema of “playing the man instead of the ball”. This related to a speech Malema gave last Friday questioning Ramaphosa’s bona fides regarding the anti-apartheid struggle.

On Tuesday, Malema said it was important to play both the man and the ball.

“In our characterisation of the ball, which you said we must play, we will also characterise the players to have a fuller picture of both subjective and objective political and ideological conditions. You can never only play the ball without understanding the strength and weaknesses of the player,” said Malema.

EFF leaders welcomed and tolerated criticism from the ANC, he said. “We never cry because we are not crybabies, we fight because we are fighters. Instead of crying, we fight,” he said.

Malema denied insulting Ramaphosa or his father.

“The president wrongly said that we previously insulted him by saying his father was a police officer during the dark days of apartheid and that even when such it is a fact, he is proud that his father was a law enforcement officer of apartheid laws.

“We never ever made any reference to the president’s father in this parliament and even if we did, it would have been a statement of fact and not insult.”

To say someone’s parent is a nurse or a police officer would never be used as an insult.

Malema accused Ramaphosa of speaking about his (Ramaphosa’s) father to unfairly drag his (Malema’s) grandmother into a matter she had nothing to do with.

He insisted that there was mutual respect between him and Ramaphosa but that the EFF continued to engage robustly.

“Second, parliament and political work generally is not for (thin-skinned) people who will use all languages to complain whenever we give fair but robust and direct characterisation of their political conduct. Here we speak truth and nothing but the truth.”

He argued that it was a constitutional requirement to hold Ramaphosa accountable and to scrutinise the decisions he takes.

Malema suggested that the National Union of Mineworkers that Ramaphosa cofounded in 1982 was a project of white capitalists and that all its leaders were wealthy while mineworkers remained among the poorest in the country.

To Ramaphosa’s “where were you?” question: “It was biologically impossible for me to be there, so don’t question me. Go and question my mother and my father why I wasn’t there.”

Malema was born in 1981.

“But when the time came I showed up, I never sold out, I was never a collaborator, I came at an early age and nothing will remove me. I am not disrespectful, I engage robustly.”

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