Juju ridicules 'shower man'

ANC Youth League president Julius Malema has again ridiculed President Jacob Zuma, this time leading supporters in a song about how "the shower man is giving us a hard time" - while gesturing with a make-believe shower head at the party's Limpopo conference.

Malema's supporters demanded that Zuma be removed, accusing him of masterminding a "coup" in Limpopo.

Last week, Minister of Finance Pravin Gordhan placed under national administration several key Limpopo departments responsible for awarding tenders. Malema is a beneficiary of several tenders.

Malema made his fresh attack at the University of Limpopo, where his key ally, premier Cassel Mathale, was fighting to retain his position as chairman.

The shower song was a reference to Zuma, who, in his rape trial in 2006, told the High Court in Johannesburg that he took a shower after having unprotected sex with his HIV-positive accuser.

Two years later, Malema, at a Free State rally, said he would "kill for Zuma". But now his antics will annoy Zuma, who is upset with Sunday Times cartoonist Jonathan Shapiro, also known as Zapiro, for portraying him with a shower extending from the top of his head. Zuma is currently suing Shapiro for R5-million in damages. The case is set for trial in August 2012.

Strong anti-Zuma sentiment prevailed among Mathale's supporters, who sang "showara wa re sokodisa (the shower man is giving us a hard time)" as Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe walked in.

Motlanthe didn't visibly react to the song or the gesture.

Malema is currently facing a five-year suspension from the party . He is appealing against the verdict . But if this latest assault on Zuma is regarded as a further breach of discipline, he may be expelled.

Yesterday, he sat on stage and fervently joined in the singing, holding his hand over his head to symbolise a shower head.

Mention of Malema by speakers at the conference drew contrasting reactions from delegates. Those supporting Mathale cheered at every mention of his name. But those supporting Joe Phaahla, who is challenging Mathale for the chairman's post, booed and rolled their hands in the famous soccer gesture denoting a substitution.

Malema and Mathale are known to be part of a faction that wants to oust Zuma at the party's elective conference in Manguang next year and replace him with Motlanthe.

ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu yesterday refused to comment on Malema's antics.

He said Luthuli House would be expecting a "full report" from the leaders it deployed to oversee the conference.

"I cannot comment on that now. The ANC leadership that is there will report, and we will take it from there," he said.

Another Malema ally, Limpopo finance MEC David Masondo, also tore into Zuma, accusing his government of "factionalism" and staging a "political coup".

Two weeks ago, the cabinet decided to take over the running of five Limpopo departments that needed at least R1.7-billion to pay wages and suppliers.

In a document, Masondo said the decision was aimed at embarrassing Mathale's government in order to politically isolate him.

Masondo wrote: "The strategy of the planners of the on-going coup seems to be premised on the logic that the current [Limpopo] ANC leadership has political support in the ANC because it controls levers of the state machinery.

"Therefore, the current ANC leaders in government have to be removed from the state."

It is expected that Masondo's document will be used by Mathale to push for a resolution calling for the withdrawal of the cabinet intervention or to defy it altogether.

Delivering the opening address, Motlanthe slammed the culture of electing leaders through "slates".

"Leadership is elected, based on the tasks that lie ahead, and cannot be a predetermined outcome of slates ... the practice of slates may have gained ground in our organisation over the last few years, but it is not in the culture of our movement."

He said leaders ended up being beholden to those who put them in power, instead of serving the people.

"Stealing away the voice of members through slates, buying votes and treating the ordinary membership as voting fodder therefore serves no other purpose than to corrupt."