EFF leader and commander in chief Julius Malema has questioned the sincerity of those who are labeling him a dictator and running a personality cult through the red berets.
Malema boasted about how he has been winning conferences since in his teen when he was elected as Cosas president unopposed and even when he was contested, he would easily trounce his opponents in conferences.
“When it comes I will whip you papa.
I will whip to an extent you will go slaughter a cow thinking your ancestors have abandoned you,” he said in sePedi when addressing journalists at a press conference at the conference venue at Nasrec in Joburg.
He said when he was still young, about 18 years old, he was elected the secretary of the ANC youth league. He asked if he could have bullied those adults in the league to choose him, some of which were ministers and MEC’s.
“I work very hard. I am in touch with the masses. It’s not the first time that I have been elected unopposed. I have been elected before when I was much younger. Did I force those people to choose me. Come on man. When I was elected the secretary of the youth league, Fikile Mbalula, Zizi Kodwa and Malusi Gigaba did not want me. But I was elected because of my work ethic. I come from nothing. I come from a domestic worker who had epilepsy.”
He was responding to questions in relation to speculation that he was running a personality after delegates knelt and bowed to him while he was on stage singing a song in his praise.
“I once visited a friend who was a Venda. When his wife brought him food, she went down on her knees as she gave him the food. That really angered me. When the woman brought the food and did that to me, I took the food and told her not to bow. I subsequently told my friend that if that’s the way he treated his wife in front of me, I will never visit his home again.I don’t want to be treated like a cult figure,” he told delegates.
He had earlier told delegates that the gesture had offended and he did not subscribe to such practices.
He also rubbished claims that he has influenced the election of the top six, saying that’s why he has chosen not to raise his hand or make any signals during nominations as that would have interpreted as giving a sign.
He said when he was still young, about 18 years old, he was elected the secretary of the ANC youth league.
He asked if he could have bullied those adults in the league to choose him, some of which were ministers and MEC’s.
