LISTEN | ‘I’ve never met my father, and I don’t see the need to’: Malema opens up about absent parent

EFF leader Julius Malema has opened up about his childhood, revealing he grew up without his father.

In a recent podcast, Malema said he was raised by his grandmother in her home, where his father was never present. He said his mother and grandmother kept his father's identity a secret, and after his mother's death his grandmother refused to disclose the information, honouring his mother's wish.

“I don't know my father. When I asked my mother about it, she'd become very angry,” Malema said.

“My grandmother would say: 'If she doesn't want to tell you, I can't tell you. It's not my place to tell you.' My mother passed on before my grandmother, and I thought it was a great opportunity [to ask her]. I said: 'Now that she's no more, she can't blame you for anything. Tell me who my father is.' She said she can't go against the dead's wishes.”

Malema expressed no interest in learning about his father, stating he doesn't see the need to.

“I've never known my father and I don't see a need to because I'm a father. I can't say I'm an orphan because I'm a father to my three boys and to the members of the EFF. I'm a father of the nation. Instead of mourning about not having a father, I'm fathering people — so I don't see the need.”

He said it was easy not to feel bad about having no father figure in his life because he was well looked after. Despite the challenges he faced, Malema credited his mother's strict upbringing for helping him grow into the person he is today.

He also spoke about the difficulties of dealing with his mother's epilepsy, which had a profound impact on his life.

“My mother was very strict and a staunch Christian — to the extent that my peers and other people in the community were scared of her. If I was not home at around 5pm or 6pm, she would go around asking for me.

“She never had an education. She had severe epilepsy. It was so bad that I started praying for her to pass on, like why would God make this person suffer like this?

“We were so poor that even the poor called us poor. Then I got involved in politics.”

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