Julius Malema briefs media at the EFF Headquarters in Braamfontein, 5 September 2019. Picture: Neil McCartney
EFF leader Julius Malema and other senior members of his party on Thursday brought attention to a Twitter account that has only been around for less than a day, but has been spewing racist vitriol.
It’s probably just a matter of time before it gets shut down for violating Twitter’s policies.
The EFF is particularly sensitive about the “monkey” slur, having once trashed H&M in South Africa for selling a top featuring a black child wearing a top identifying him as the “Coolest monkey in the jungle.”
Malema retweeted one message that came as a response to the EFF’s deputy leader, Floyd Shivambu, boasting about “cutting the throat of whiteness” by having removed Athol Trollip as the mayor of Nelson Mandela Bay.
“The monkey is also good at making threats about occupying my land, but till today, the monkey has never pitched up,” the anonymous account tweeted, leading the EFF to allege that Trollip himself was behind the account, which is unlikely.
The account features the old SA flag as a profile image, a gratuitous display of the apartheid-era symbol that was declared hate speech earlier this year.
Shivambu had himself been responding to Trollip criticising the EFF for being “flip floppers”.
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