Tea party with Zuma misrepresented – it was not a political alignment but meant to save lives: Malema

EFF leader Julius Malema says his so-called tea party with former president Jacob Zuma has been misrepresented. 

The visit by EFF leaders to the Nkandla homestead in February 2021 was merely meant to avert a national disaster that was bound to happen when Zuma was arrested, Malema said. Instead, the tea party has been misrepresented to make it seem like it was a meeting of like-minded politicians who were aligned. 

But this, Malema said at the party’s conference on Thursday, was not the case, as the EFF would never align with people alleged to have stolen public money. 

Delivering his political report at the opening of the EFF’s National People’s Assembly, he said there was an ill-advised decision by the judiciary to arrest Zuma and the EFF leadership felt a need to intervene to try to convince Zuma to comply with the directives to appear before chief justice Raymond Zondo at the state capture commission of inquiry. 

This, he said, had necessitated their visit to Nkandla which was done in full view of everyone. 

“This was necessary because at the time, we foresaw the bloodshed to come which would come in the former state president's name, and we knew that this was avoidable,” said Malema.

However, he said, Zuma did not accede to his intervention which led to his arrest and later saw thousands of people participating in unrest to demand his release. 

“It is unfortunate that our plea fell on deaf ears and that today our intervention is misrepresented as part of some political ploy we are involved in,” said Malema. 

“We as the EFF will never associate with individuals who have stolen government money and resources for their own benefit, nor will we ever associate with any faction in any political party.”

The EFF at the time wanted to protect innocent lives that stood to be lost should there be an arrest. This, Malema said, was not something the EFF regretted. 

“I'm happy to report that we were vindicated when the former president was arrested and his arrest led to the July 2021 unrest and senseless killings of black people. Had our intervention succeeded, the tragic loss of black lives would have been prevented.”

Malema's explanation comes as Malema and Zuma are yet again at political odds, as the EFF believes Zuma is on a mission to destroy their party after several high-ranking members of the EFF recently defected to the MK Party. 

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