Malema slams 'imperialist' US, Nato over Libya

07 July 2011 - 01:44 By McKEED KOTLOLO
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ANC Youth League president Julius Malema in full flight Picture: JACKIE CLAUSEN
ANC Youth League president Julius Malema in full flight Picture: JACKIE CLAUSEN

It seems ANC Youth League President Julius Malema has a love-hate relationship with the boers, as he now doesn't want to "shoot" them, but to "kiss" them.

At the end of the National Union of Metal Workers of SA members' march to the US Embassy in Johannesburg yesterday - to protest against Nato's bombing campaign in Libya - Malema launched into the liberation chant Kill the Boer, Kill the Farmer, that was made infamous by the late Peter Mokaba.

However, Malema changed the lyrics to "Kiss the boer, kiss the farmer".

Before Malema arrived at the march, hundreds of union members were singing Dubuli 'bhunu (Shoot the Boer) a song that led to a hate speech case lodged against the youth leader.

They were also singing Awuleth'u mshini wami, a song that led to controversy when President Jacob Zuma sang it.

Malema lashed out at the US government and Nato, calling on them to stop bombing Libya.

Malema said: "We are here to confront the imperialists . the bloodthirsty imperialists who did not get tired of bombing other countries every day."

He called on Nato and the US to leave the African continent to find peaceful solutions to its own problems because it had enough capacity to deal with them.

He said South Africa should not have voted for Resolution 1973 which empowered Nato and its allies to intervene in Libya.

He said the problem with Nato and its allies "is that they only knew military intervention. They do not know politics. All they know is war".

He said Zuma went to Russia to give Nato "lessons in negotiation skills". Malema also slammed France and Britain, who reportedly armed and financed the Libyan rebels.

Both the British and French embassies refused the union permission to hand over memoranda.

"We are not going to be told by the queen that we cannot march. In whose land," Malema asked.

In his message of support to the striking workers, Malema said they were earning "peanuts".

The memorandum was received by the US Embassy's spokesman, Elizabeth Trudeau, who said she had already forwarded it to the White House.

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