'You're nothing compared to your parents': Malema lashes out at DA rival during heated Mugabe debate

EFF leader Julius Malema has fired a broadside at DA MP Ghaleb Cachalia, describing him as political under-achiever hiding behind his family name.

This was after the conservative DA MP told the National Assembly during a debate on a Malema-sponsored condolence motion about late Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe, that Malema "was only six years old" when Cachalia travelled to Harare to attend the commemoration of the anniversary of the universal declaration of human rights.

In closing the debate, Malema hit back at Cachalia, accusing him of being an ageist who was using his family name to advance his political career.

Ghaleb is the son of late anti-apartheid struggle icons Amina and Yusuf Cachalia.

Malema said Cachalia was resorting to using the issue of age in a political debate because he did not have credentials of his own.

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"I heard someone saying here that in 1988, Malema was this or that age. That's a problem of ageists. You're an ageist of note because whether I was eight years at the time, politically if I were to compare what I've achieved and what you've achieved, you don't come anywhere close," said Malema, to loud applause from his MPs.

"You always hide behind the dress of your mother's credentials. You use your family wrongly for personal accumulation and you always irritate us with your parents' credentials as if they're yours. They're not yours. You have no credentials at all."

At that moment, Ghaleb rose on a point of order to object to Malema's accusations.

"The honourable Malema accused me using my family's name for personal accumulation. He must withdraw," said Ghaleb, but Malema would not have it.

"Honourable speaker, I never mentioned anyone. But if the shoe fits, wear it.

"You're too old, chief, to be saying 'my mother this, my father this and that'. Write your own history, which is going to be the ugliest history because of the side you chose. You will never have credentials close to your parents. You're nothing compared to your parents."

In the end, the Mugabe condolence motion was adopted by all parties with the objection of the DA, while the IFP and the ACDP abstained.