You ‘hide behind the dress of your mother’s credentials’, Malema tells Cachalia

In parliament on Tuesday afternoon, Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema lashed out at Democratic Alliance (DA) MP Ghaleb Cachalia, accusing him of being an “ageist” who trades off his past – his parents being late anti-apartheid activists Amina and Yusuf Cachalia.

Cachalia had reacted to a draft resolution proposed by Malema to honour late Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe by highlighting the negative aspects of his legacy, including his role in the Gukurahundi massacres, which saw an estimated 20,000 Ndebele people killed.

He began his speech by saying: “In 1988, when the honourable Malema, whose hero the late Robert Mugabe, is was about six years old, I travelled to Harare to commemorate the anniversary of the universal declaration of human rights at a concert featuring many international luminaries,” before going on to explain that at this exact time the Zimbabwean military’s fifth brigade was executing Ndebele dissidents in Matabeleland.

It was this that Malema reacted to.

“I heard someone saying here, in 1988 Malema was this or that age … you are an ageist of note, because whether I was eight years or six years at the time, politically if you were to compare what I have achieved and what you have achieved you don’t come anywhere close,” he said.

He then attacked Cachalia for allegedly hiding “behind the dress of your mother’s credentials”.

READ MORE: Malema changes topic from Springboks to Mugabe: ‘Let’s deal with real issues’

“You use your family wrongly for personal accumulation, and you always irritate us with your parents’ credentials as if they are yours. They are not yours,” he said.

Cachalia then raised a point of order, telling Malema to withdraw the accusation that he had used his family’s name for personal accumulation. The EFF leader responded by saying he had not mentioned anyone by name.

“I never mentioned anyone, but if the shoe fits, wear it,” he said.

“You are too old chief, you are too old to be saying my mother my father this and that, write your own history which is going to be the ugliest history because of the side you chose, you will never have credentials like your parents, you are nothing compared to your parents,” Malema said.

The content of the draft resolution Malema proposed on Robert Mugabe can be read about in detail here.

Cachalia’s speech reacting to it can be read about here.

CIC @Julius_S_Malema concludes by addressing the ageists that use age to critique the motion brought forward. pic.twitter.com/hu8jRr7SgJ

— Economic Freedom Fighters (@EFFSouthAfrica) November 12, 2019

(Compiled by Daniel Friedman)

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