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Malema says he can have a pool and still be a revolutionary
Floyd Shivambu and the EFF condemned as racist over ‘non-African’ outburst
The party has, however, doubled down on its position, insisting that struggle veteran Ismail Momoniat 'undermines Africans'.
Economic Freedom Fighters leaders Julius Malema (left) and Floyd Shivambu. Picture: Gallo Images
Following the extraordinary news that EFF deputy president and chief whip Floyd Shivambu objected to the presence of a man, a distinguished struggle veteran no less, in parliament on Tuesday simply on the basis of his race, he and his party have faced an avalanche of criticism.
Shivambu objected to “non-African” Ismail Momoniat’s “repeated presence” in meetings. Deputy director-general Momoniat is a Treasury representative, and Shivambu took issue with why Momoniat attended all finance committee meetings instead of his African counterpart Dondo Mogajane.
Shivambu reportedly said: “I think he undermines Africans. He does not take the director-general, the finance minister or the deputy finance minister seriously. He thinks he is superior to them. He takes all the decisions and he is always here in Parliament as if he is National Treasury alone. He is supposed to focus on what he is assigned to.”
The finance committee chairman, Yunus Carrim, was outraged, calling Shivambu to order and telling Shivambu that Momoniat was a struggle veteran who had been active in the underground struggle against apartheid. He pointed out to Shivambu that his logic implied that former Bophuthatswana leader Lucas Mangope should be seen as more important than Indian struggle hero Ahmed Kathrada, purely for reasons of race, which he would not do.
Rapport editor Waldimar Pelser on Twitter called for the EFF to be treated the way “all racial nationalists and racists” should be treated, “namely with contempt”. Author Max du Preez called it “reprehensible”.
Others were unimpressed by “crude and shallow nativism”.
The crude & shallow racial nativism of the educated but frankly stupid flabby floyd
& then… Yoyo Yunus: `momoniat is a struggle veteran'… but Momo`s legitimacy at FinCom is not based on his struggle reciepts… It is based on his job descriptionhttps://t.co/AbGDlmj7JU
— Ebrahim Fakir (@EbrahimFakir) June 5, 2018
“The EFF’s newest campaign is to throw mud at the Treasury: in the National Assembly Malema said Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene was “as corrupt as hell” and Floyd Shivambu referred to Treasury deputy director-general Ismail Momoniat as “a corrupt guy in Treasury known as Momo”.”
— Sangxa (@sangxa) June 5, 2018
Shivambu has not done much to win the regard of journalists, having sworn at them and called them names when he was still in the ANC Youth League. Earlier this year, he physically attacked a journalist outside parliament simply because Adrian de Kock was asking him a question while Shivambu was allegedly in a hurry. The EFF’s chief whip subsequently apologised for the attack.
