'Gayton pretends to be happy, but prison has its own traumas': Malema

EFF leader Julius Malema has taken a swipe at PA leader and sport, arts and culture minister Gayton McKenzie's enthusiasm in his portfolio.

Malema's criticism comes amid McKenzie's public expressions of confidence in the government of national unity (GNU) and his apparent enjoyment of his ministerial role. He views McKenzie's positivity as a façade, suggesting it stems from trauma due to his past imprisonment.

“Gayton pretends to be happy, and everyone gets confused and calls him the happiest minister in [the] GNU, but if you look deep into him he's using that to close down his traumas,” Malema said in an EFF podcast.

“Prison has its own traumas. If you look at Gayton and watch podcasts where they interview ex-prisoners who explain those traumas, there's no way this one survived those things. He pretends to be happy but as he sits at home alone, his demons visit him.”

Malema accused McKenzie of previously perpetuating the narrative that the EFF is “dying”, before the recent exodus of prominent EFF members to the newly formed MK Party led by Jacob Zuma, which raised concerns that the EFF could be in trouble.

“It was Gayton who was pushing that narrative of us dying. Interestingly, it is the same Gayton who is now saying that Zuma has achieved what all of us failed to achieve in the past 10 years by finishing the EFF.

“This loser is nowhere near us politically. Maybe in gangsterism, which he says he's good at, or those things of prison and all that. He wishes he was like us, but he'll never be like us. He's nowhere close to us politically and he's no-one to declare the death of the EFF.”

TimesLIVE