Malema again makes fun of ‘cleaner’ Zuma’s lack of education

EFF leader Julius Malema, who has possibly insulted President Jacob Zuma more than anyone else in South Africa, was at it again on Friday.

On his Twitter timeline, a picture of Zuma in overalls cleaning the outside of a house for Mandela Day was captioned: “Finally he is doing the job he is qualified for.”

Zuma led a cleaning campaign at the Ngwelezane Place of Safety in Empangeni, KwaZulu-Natal, on Tuesday for Mandela Day. He was joined by other ANC leaders in cleaning windows at the place of safety, which houses children in need, from newborns up to 18 year-olds.

At the time, Zuma said his efforts were part of “a big day to say let us do something for ourselves as a human race”.

Ever since his expulsion from the ANC Malema has maintained that Zuma is not qualified to be president for reasons of both ability and track record. The EFF consistently refuse to be addressed by Zuma in parliament, as they point out that he broke his oath of office according to the Constitutional Court, and should be impeached.

Malema himself kept a low profile this Mandela Day.

Zuma has previously been quite open about the fact that he never went to school. He was taught to read and write in English on Robben Island.

PAC member Mark Shinners, in his 70s, told The Citizen in 2015 that Zuma and the late minister of safety and security Steve Tshwete had been in his English class on the island.

Shinners said a large number of PAC members and a few from the ANC arrived on Robben Island early in 1963. Zuma arrived later that year. He and Shinners were locked up in Cell B3. Although Cell 1 was a designated study cell, the underground studies took place in Cell B3.

Shinners described the young Zuma as a well-disciplined and loyal freedom fighter.

He said despite the age difference, Zuma was more than willing to be taught.

“He showed maturity and discipline while he was in prison. On the island, you are trained to listen and listen carefully – and I can still see those elements in him. Zuma does not panic when faced by difficult circumstances. Even on Robben Island, when the Boers came down hard on us, we remained calm and laughed about it,” he chuckled.

Shinners had a junior certificate and taught Zuma, Tshwete and others “construction of sentences, sentence and clause analysis and syntax”.

“Zuma was very diligent, always neat and making sure he performed his tasks and submitted his assignments on time,”  he recalled.

“People underestimate him. He may not be certificated but clearly the man is highly intelligent. He said he was a herdboy before he went to prison – and look at where he is now.

“He is a self-taught man, very cautious and very structured. People may say he is struggling but we, who know where he comes from, understand.”

Shinners said Zuma was barely literate when he arrived in prison but “when he left prison he had a complete different personality; he was quite confident of himself”.

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