Malema flip-flops on DD Mabuza
EFF leader Julius Malema on Saturday made a dramatic U-turn in his stance on Deputy President David Mabuza.
Barely a month after praising Mabuza for being "clean", Malema, addressing thousands of EFF supporters at the party's sixth anniversary celebrations at KaNyamazane Stadium in Mpumalanga, accused Mabuza of being "rotten" and running Mpumalanga like his personal fiefdom.
Malema charged that corruption, nepotism and improper cadre deployment were rife in Mpumalanga owing to Mabuza. The EFF leader went as far as describing Mpumalanga as "the most corrupt province in South Africa".
On July 2, Malema, during a media conference at the party's headquarters in Braamfontein, said that the country should prepare the country for Mabuza as president as there was no evidence of wrongdoing against him. But he was singing from a different song sheet at KaNyamazane.
"Mpumalanga has produced a rotten deputy president called DD Mabuza. Our people in this province, as long as they are not in the group of DD, they do not get jobs," said Malema.
"For our children to work in this province, they must be supporters of DD Mabuza. We are in a province where tenders are given to friends of the politically connected.
"People without qualifications are hired to be senior managers, HoDs and municipal managers. The only qualification they have is to be members of the ANC, which is also not enough [because] you must still DD Mabuza's faction otherwise you will never work."
Malema also said the province misspent taxpayers' money.
"Go and check the Auditor-General report about municipalities here in Mpumalanga. Only one [is clean]..."
Earlier this month, this is what Malema said about Mabuza: "Every turn we take we call DD [Mabuza] corrupt but there is nothing tangible that I have ever touched against the man, not even intelligence stuff. Can you say that about DD, no one can. With DD, it is all toilet rumours because if you repeat those in a proper platform, DD would take you to the cleaners and you cannot succeed."
Malema on Saturday also launched a scathing attack on businessman Johann Rupert saying “we do not need him” and called for South Africans to accompany him to the airport, to leave the country.
President Cyril Ramaphosa and minister Pravin Gordhan were also not spared criticism.
Malema vowed that Gordhan would fall the same way the likes of former president Jacob Zuma, Malusi Gigaba and former Nelson Mandela Bay mayor Athol Trollip had fallen - all events that he credited the EFF for.
He cautioned Ramaphosa saying if he did not unchain himself from being controlled by white people, he may also meet the same fate.
“The EFF has not said as yet that Ramaphosa must go, but I am saying to him: listen to the loud whispering otherwise you will follow your predecessor and go look after cattle in Venda,” said Malema.
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