Julius Malema. Picture: Yeshiel Panchia
EFF leader Julius Malema has opened up about the relationship he had with President Jacob Zuma in an interview with Capricorn FM on Monday evening.
Malema said though they had a close relationship while he was still in the ANC, they were not as close anymore since starting his own political party, saying he had only visited the president’s house three times.
“I’ve never been to Nkandla, the only house of Zuma I’ve been to is the one in Forest Town. I went into that house the day he moved in because we had helped him relocate from OR Tambo house in Pretoria when Thabo fired him. That was the first time,” he said.
The second time was when the president won the rape case against Fezekile Ntsukela Kuzwayo, popularly known as Khwezi.
That’s where he used to discuss matters with the president.
However, things took a turn for the worse when, before Malema’s expulsion form the ANC, Zuma allegedly tried to threaten him and said other leaders who behaved like him in Africa were made to disappear, though the threats did not move the EFF leader.
“One day he tried to threaten me that there are some young leaders in Africa who are starting to emulate you, disrespecting their leaders, former liberation movement leaders and all these leaders are complaining to us, but you know how in Africa they deal with them. Those young boys they get dealt with quickly, they even disappear.
“And I said to him politely: ‘Mr President, you’re trying to threaten me, you’re telling me that you can make me disappear or anything of that sort, it’s not going to work with me. My view is this, and you’re going to have to persuade me, don’t threaten me. Don’t tell me politicians disappear in Africa, this is South Africa, there is the law, there are institutions of the state. If anything happens to me, people will know.'”
It seems the ruling party then decided expelling him was a better option, as he was axed in 2012 for allegedly sowing division and bringing the party into disrepute.
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