Zuma retweets that Malema has to talk about him to get ‘attention’

Former president Jacob Zuma on Sunday, in a rare retweet, added the view to his timeline that EFF leader Julius Malema allegedly gets coverage in the media (derogatorily referred to as “Stratcom”) if he talks about Zuma.

It’s unclear why this particular view was being expressed over the weekend, as reports on Malema’s campaign rallies appear to have been reported on by various media titles, with or without reference to the former president.

However, the view that Malema was once embraced by the media due to his critical stance towards Zuma has often been expressed in various quarters.

Picture: Twitter screenshot

In an interview last year Zuma unexpectedly praised Malema, who is known for having insulted and scorned Zuma since Malema was expelled from the ANC.

Malema and his party have variously mocked the shape of Zuma’s head, and have called him a criminal, a constitutional delinquent, a dictator, and more.

“Malema comes from the ANC; he was the leader of the youth league. I interacted with him a great deal and he knows what I said to him at one point about his potential … which I still believe, if it is properly guided, as it was guided in the ANC, there is something that could come out of Malema.”

At the end of January, Malema attended a service at the Apostolic Faith Mission River of Life in Soshanguve, Tshwane, where he said he had forgiven Zuma after hearing a sermon on forgiveness.

“We came here for wisdom and, since the priest was telling us about forgiveness as politicians, we must now forgive Zuma. We forgive him for the sake of the priest because we cannot go against the word of the priest,” Malema said.

Mere days earlier he had said: “They [Zuma and Ramaphosa] are the same. They are from the same pot. You can’t cook a chicken in the same pot and say this piece is better than that piece. They are all the same. What is the pot? The pot is African National Corruption. That’s where they’re cooked. They are all products of that.”

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