ANC accused of mimicking Malema’s red berets

Is the ANC mimicking the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) style of wooing support for votes ahead of the 2024 general election?

This is a question on many people’s lips after several noticeable actions, which some believed the ruling party was copying from the red berets.

A similar question was asked by the Modjadji rain queen’s family and council last Friday during a courtesy visit by the leadership of the Limpopo ANC Youth League at the Royal Palace in Khethakone Village, Bolobedu outside Modjadjiskloof.

The family claimed that soon after EFF leader Julius Malema donated a luxury car and a borehole to the reigning Bapedi Queen Manyaku “Hlapogadi A Phaahla” Thulare, the Limpopo ANC’s provincial leadership did not waste even a day to make an unexpected visit to the Modjadji royal family.

“Led by the party engine, Reuben Madazhe, the ANC came to us and made a similar proposal,” a senior member of the Modjadji Royal Council, Molate Ratlabala, said at the meeting.

“We then asked ourselves as to whether the ANC would have paid us a visit had the EFF not visited the Bapedi queen. Our question was, why can’t the ANC copy from Nelson Mandela?

“Mandela made proper arrangements with us. He came here and donated two luxury vehicles to the queen. He built the family an agricultural school called Mandela Barloworld, he constructed a tarred road through the mountain ranges of Khethakone leading to the palace, among many other things.”

Ratlabala said Mandela did all these things out of the goodness of his heart and not imitating anyone.

“Maybe the provincial and national leadership of the ANC must learn a thing or two from the old man and do things to others not because someone else was doing it elsewhere.”

During the EFF’s 10th anniversary celebration at the FNB Stadium last Sunday, Malema posed a similar question. This after Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi handed out thousands of job letters to unemployed youth at Orlando Stadium in Soweto, two days before the EFF’s birthday jamboree. Malema branded him a chancer.

“Lesufi took our children to Orlando Stadium where he gave them worthless papers, claiming he would give them stipends… those are not stipends but bribery. Lesufi did so because he wanted you to vote for the ANC… But the youth of today do not want bribery, but genuine jobs and the land to be returned back to their rightful owners.”