Zuma’s statement that malema left ANC is not true, argues Ndlozi

EFF national spokesperson Dr Mbuyiseni Ndlozi has rubbished a statement by President Jacob Zuma that then ANCYL president Julius Malema was the one who decided to leave the party and start his own party.

In an interview on ANN7 on Monday, Zuma said he did not rule out the possibility that EFF leaders would return to the ruling party. He said the leaders left the ANC because of “certain things”, and not disagreements.

“Its leaders moved away from ANC because of certain things, not because they disagreed with ANC. It is not something I want to predict. At some point people might come to their senses. instead of shouting at one another, we should be working together.

“Who knew that Julius Malema, who said his blood was green and gold, a man who said the ANC was in his DNA, would leave? Politics really moves in funny directions sometimes,” he said.

But the EFF spokesperson said the president’s statement that Malema was the only who decided to leave the ruling party was not true.

“Zuma says CIC Malema left the ANC. It’s not true; the ANC expelled him! It also rejected policies like nationalisation of mines and banks,” said Ndlozi.

Malema, then president of the ANC Youth League, was axed in 2012 for allegedly sowing division in the ANC and bringing the party into disrepute.

“It’s all these ‘freaks’ who broke away from the ANC who cause confusion in the country.”

Addressing delegates attending the ANC’s KwaZulu-Natal provincial general council in Mpangeni earlier this year, the president threw perhaps his most direct off-the-cuff insults yet at the EFF leader.

Zuma said Malema started causing trouble in the ANC when he did not agree with the changes that were being made at the time, further calling him “a mental case”.

“Then, out of nowhere, a crazy boy emerged. This craziness started while he was still in the ANC … A real mental case.”

He further compared the EFF leader to “an insane person armed with matches, threatening to burn a house down while still inside it”.

“Things had changed and this crazy person didn’t agree with these changes. People even defended this crazy person.

“He eventually left and is now crazier than ever. My god, houses are burning down,” he said to laughs from the audience.

Speaking to Tbo Touch on Touch HD earlier this year, Malema said he wouldn’t return to the ANC because he couldn’t do more to hurt the ANC than what it was currently doing to itself.

“The ruling party is engaged in a programme of self-destruction. As they self-destruct, don’t disturb them. They may use you to unite. We must leave it to the ANC, this must be the ANC’s year of destruction. We will come in there when we are required to intervene.

“You can only go back to a house which is still there. How do you go back to a house that has collapsed? There is nothing to go back to. Anyone who knows the future is bright will not look forward. ANC is not the future. The future is the EFF. That is why when we left, we did not join other parties. As we speak today, the EFF is the only intact party without internal battles,” he said at the time.

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