EFF leader Julius Malema has again hit out at KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, criticising him for being unable to handle public scrutiny.
“Mkhwanazi is very sensitive. He thinks he cannot be criticised, or that no one should say anything good about any other police officer except himself,” Malema said in a recent interview with Radio 702.
This follows remarks Malema made during a media briefing on Saturday, where he accused Mkhwanazi of dragging the EFF into personal vendettas between high-ranking SAPS officials.
The tension began during Mkhwanazi’s testimony before a parliamentary ad hoc committee last week. Mkhwanazi told the committee that he had been introduced to Malema through Maj-Gen Feroz Khan — an assertion Malema deemed unnecessary and irrelevant to the committee’s investigation.
Malema maintained that Mkhwanazi’s decision to mention his name while he [Malema] was not at the committee had nothing to do with the evidence being presented to the ad hoc committee.
“I will deal with those facts when I appear before the ad hoc committee. I’ll participate objectively, and that’s me. I don’t care who thinks what about me; I deal with the truth.”
Malema accused Mkhwanazi of invoking the EFF’s name unnecessarily, stating that Maj-Gen Khan should not be unfairly associated with the party. He went on to praise Khan as a dedicated officer.
“The police should have given Khan an award for his actions when he stopped corrupt officers from stealing drugs,” Malema said.
While Malema admitted to meeting Mkhwanazi through Khan, he disputed the commissioner’s version of events. Malema claimed he did not request the meeting; instead, he alleged it was Mkhwanazi who sought an audience after Malema publicly criticised the investigation into the murder of rapper Kiernan “AKA” Forbes.
Malema alleged that during that meeting, Mkhwanazi told him that national commissioner Gen Fannie Masemola “cannot even write an email”— a claim Malema later repeated in a previous briefing.
Malema said his comments were not a personal attack and that he stands by his words.
TimesLIVE
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