Gareth Cliff delivers stinging clapback at claims he has 'lost relevance'

Gareth Cliff has clapped back at claims that he has lost relevance after his latest Instagram post quoting former UK prime minister Winston Churchill.

Over the weekend, the controversial former Idols SA judge shared Churchill's 1949 quote  “If you destroy a free market you create a black market. If you make ten thousand regulations, you destroy all respect for the law”.

The post was criticised by some of his followers, with one user claiming that Gareth was “constantly posting negative sh** to destroy the morale of the country”.

“You have long ago lost the concept of constructive criticism, and with that all relevance,” she wrote.

Clapping back, Gareth said: “F*** off then. I don’t post for you. What a self-important ball ache you are.”

The post comes weeks after Gareth criticised the lockdown regulations in an open letter, saying they were causing havoc on the “economy, on people’s lives and livelihoods”.

In the letter, he said “many of us” were no longer “afraid of the virus” and “were ready to give [co-operative governance and traditional affairs minister] Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma the middle finger and start risking breaking the rules".

Many slammed him for speaking on behalf of “us”.

In a YouTube video, ANC MP Faiez Jacobs said: “You have some nerve to raise concerns on behalf of the poor, to compare yourself to Moses. You’re more like a [US president Donald] Trump wannabe, a crybaby seeking attention. You are selfish and reckless.”

Last week, on his CliffCentral show, Gareth told President Cyril Ramaphosa a clear Covid-19 strategy was needed because “we have no idea what those victory conditions are”.

“Are we still flattening curve or are we just paralysed in fear or ignorance?" he asked.