Malema’s friends turned foes

One of South Africa’s most controversial political figures shocked members of the media and viewers when he mentioned Pravin Gordhan’s name in connection with the rogue unit during an EFF press briefing held earlier today.

Gordhan is just the latest in a long list of people who were once lauded by Malema and have now become subject to intense criticism by him. Here are just a few of the EFF CIC’s “friends turned foes”.

Jacob Zuma

The earliest memory most news consumers have of Malema is that of being an avid Jacob Zuma supporter, especially during the height of Zuma’s legal woes after allegations of corruption, racketeering and money-laundering.

In April of 2008, Malema said, “As the Youth League we have declared his case political and therefore it should be resolved politically. Zuma is going to be the face of the ANC’s election campaign and he will also be the country’s presidential candidate. We will not compromise on that.”

He went on to support the incoming ANC president on numerous occasions but things turned sour along the way, causing the then ANC Youth League president to be suspended from the mother body for five years.

This, after racking up a number of alleged infractions and making unsavoury comments about Zuma during the early days of his presidency. Malema was found guilty of sowing divisions and bringing the party into disrepute.

He went on to form his own party, which later solidified its spot in the mainstream consciousness by coming at Zuma hard with their “pay back the money” catch phrase.

“We were told … [former president Thabo Mbeki] is concocting charges against President Zuma, and that President Zuma is not corrupt – he is an honourable man – and therefore [Mbeki] is fighting against him because he has got his own ideas on how the ANC must go forward. And thank God we lived to see for ourselves that no one was actually concocting charges against Zuma. He was actually corrupt himself … We realised much more later, that we were actually misled,” said Malema last year.

Andile Mngxitama

Mngxitama was among the EFF defectors who followed Malema to the EFF and it was not long before he became the de facto leader of his own anti-Malema faction within the EFF.

He accused the party leadership of misusing funds, among other things, and tried to hold two press briefings to state his case.

He was suspended from the party before he could make any progress on his cause and was later expelled.

Come 2019, however, Mngxitama will be contesting the election with his own party, Black First, Land First (BLF).

ALSO READ: Malema blames Gordhan, Treasury for VBS ‘witch-hunt’

Kenny Kunene

The decline of Kunene and Malema’s relationship follows a similar pattern to that with Mngxitama with one slight difference – Kunene co-founded the EFF with Malema and Floyd Shivambu.

Kunene has never elaborated on his reasons for leaving the EFF but stated he was put off by Malema’s “militaristic and warlike nature”.

Nhlanhla Nene

Much like his comments about Gordhan, Malema and the EFF’s condemnation of Nhlanhla Nene in light of his testimony at the State Capture Commission came as a surprise to some.

In addition to supporting his reappointment as finance minister earlier this year, the party had previously never shown any opposition to the minister apart from Malema’s parliamentary rant in which he referred to the minister as “corrupt as hell” and questioned the circumstances surrounding his appointment.

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.