WATCH: Twitter remembers when ‘prophet Malema’ called Zille the Zuma of the DA

Following the election of former Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Helen Zille to the position of the party’s federal council chairperson, a clip showing what a Twitter user described as what “Prophet Julius Malema” had to say about Zille has gone viral.

At a press conference in June 2017, Malema accused the DA of allowing Helen Zille to compromise the party and its project of removing the ANC from power in 2019.

Malema said the DA would “fail the 2019 project of removing ANC from government if they carry on like this, disrespecting their coalition partners and allowing Helen Zille to become Zuma of the DA”.

This followed a press conference at which DA leader Mmusi Maimane announced that Zille would be stepping down from DA decision-making bodies following her controversial tweets on colonialism.

She was subsequently accused of failing to stick to this deal by involving herself in party activities, including campaigning for the party in this year’s elections.

“Helen Zille, if she was indeed thinking she was treated unfairly, she must resign and still take the DA to court just to clear her name,” said Malema at the time.

READ MORE: Malema asks Zille if she’s lost after she invites him on to her podcast

“But to allow her party, which she formed and said she loved so much, to deteriorate in her name, then she’s no different from Jacob Zuma, and she’s compromising the 2019 project of removing the ANC,” Malema said.

He goes on to say, in the clip, that Maimane is being “undermined” and that the Zille is “prepared to collapse” the party’s ambitions of removing the ANC from government “because of her ego”.

He also calls former DA federal council chairperson James Selfe “baas James” and accuses him of questioning Maimane’s authority.

“Now Mmusi, shem, he goes and suspends Helen Zille through a press conference and the baas James says uh-uh, it’s not done like that, let’s give her 48 hours,” he said.

“Those whites there are giving him a tough time, they are undermining him and Helen Zille is prepared to collapse this project because of her ego, not without a fight, she wants to live up to the title of the book,” Malema said, in reference to Zille’s autobiography.

The ANC remained in power following the 2019 elections, growing from below 50% in the 2016 municipal elections to 57.50%, while the DA lost roughly 400,000 votes, declining from 22.23% of the vote to 20.77%.

(Compiled by Daniel Friedman.) 

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.