Natasha Mazzone Member of the National Assembly of South Africa at the 2022 State of the Nation Address (SONA) at Cape Town City Hall. (Photo by Gallo Images/Die Burger/Jaco Marais)
In a faux-pas that deserves as much disdain as DA leader John Steenhuisen’s ‘roadkill’ comments in a podcast last month, former DA parliamentary whip Natasha Mazzone has called EFF supporters ‘highly uneducated’ in an online video interview.
The majority of EFF supporters are black South Africans. The DA probably did not need Mazzone’s comments given its sustained charm offensive to win over the black vote.
Unsurprisingly, the comment set Twitter alight, with Mazzone poking more than just the Malema bear.
Mazzone also accused the party of luring supporters to the polls with the promise of a meal, and pointed at Malema’s perceived luxurious lifestyle, while his supporters live in abject poverty.
Mazzone also called Malema an “obvious fraud” and a “Gucci-revolutionary tin-pot dictator.”
Also read: Mazzone demoted as Sivive Gwarube appointed new chief whip
In two separate tirades in less than a week, she had a bark at the red berets’ leader. It started with an open letter, published on the DA website last Friday and then, Wednesday’s slap in the face.
And in her new position as the party’s spokesperson on national security, Mazzone said that she had sent Malema her open letter to State Security. But the contents did not seem to indicate any real threat to South Africa’s current status quo.
It just added more weight to Malema’s rhetoric.
In the sardonically toned open letter to Malema, which was also akin to a declaration of a PR-war, Mazzone wrote on Friday:
“I must say, I wouldn’t normally listen to issues you raise at your conferences, but this particular speech was brought to my attention. I was not expecting the fire and brimstone speech as the last time I saw you, you were looking so happy and relaxed in Ibiza (although a little passé for people our age).”
And there was more. Mazzone aimed for a headline grabbing but condescending tone:
“I think it is time for me and you to have a chat. I think we need to sit down, in a public arena, and talk these issues out in full. I need to know how and why you think you will seize power (by-election results are showing you are losing a lot of support), I want to know whose throat you want to slit and most importantly, I want to know why you talk about war and murder in what is already a volatile political landscape.”
She added:
“Why all the hate? Why all the violence? I and millions of other South Africans have had enough. I personally believe you do nothing positive in the political arena and I think it’s time you are told, to your face, you are no Idi Amin, you are no Muammar Gaddafi, you are no Fidel Castro or Che Guevara and certainly no Benito Mussolini. The fact that these dictators and fascists are your idols is deeply disturbing and says everything we need to know about you.”
Whether the red beret leader will gnarl back at all, or even bite, is doubtful. EFF Provincial leader Nkululeko Dunga told The Citizen that the party could care less about Mazzone’s rhetoric and lies.
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