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The leader of the EFF, Julius Malema.
Sharon Seretlo, Gallo Images
- DA leader John Steenhuisen has challenged EFF leader Julius Malema to resign from his police security team.
- DA President Ivan Meyer said the EFF will not be allowed to “disturb the peace in the Western Cape.”
- Steenhuisen says South Africans should reject the politics of hatred.
DA leader John Steenhuisen has challenged EFF leader Julius Malema, who recently threatened police officers, to give up the police protection he receives.
Steenhuisen and DA Chairman Ivan Meyer were participating in a party webcast, hosted by DA’s new spokesperson, Siviwe Gwarube.
Malema told EFF supporters in the Free State on Sunday: “Yes [the] The South African police want a fight, they must declare it. We will treat them the same way we treated them in the 80s (80s). We will not only fight them in the pickets, we will go to their homes and we will fight them in their homes with their own families. We are not afraid of the police.
“We will go for you one by one in [sic] your own comfort zone. We will teach them that no one can defeat the power of the masses. Not a policeman, not a police state, not a military state. “
This, after police broke up an EFF protest in front of Brackenfell High School in Cape Town’s northern suburbs last week with stun grenades and a water cannon last week.
Meyer said the EFF has no interest in “the politics of reason” and an agenda to divide.
‘Break the peace’
“We will not tolerate EFF attacks in the Western Cape,” said Meyer, who is also a MEC in the provincial government.
“We will no longer allow them to visit schools.”
He said that students are writing tests.
“We will not allow the thugs, because that’s what they are, the EFF, to disturb the peace in the Western Cape.”
READ | Malema’s ‘reckless’ comments fall outside the constitutionally protected freedom of expression: experts
Steenhuisen said that attacking the police is very dangerous in the context of police killings.
He said the government and Parliament should start criticizing the EFF over its tactics.
“It’s time we stopped pampering the EFF,” he said.
“I challenge you today, if you believe what you say about the police not doing their job and are at war with you, I challenge you, Mr. Malema, to hand over the security detail provided by the state.” – you are the only opposition leader that has a SAPS security detachment – I challenge you today to resign from your security detachment, “said Steenhuisen.
“If you are asking the public to attack police officers, then I think it is a shame that you yourself are sitting in police protection and expecting people to attack the very people you trust to be safe. And I think it is hypocrisy of the highest level. ”
In 2018 it was reported that Malema is under police protection. Malema also shared the threats he received last week, in very racist language, on Twitter.
Steenhuisen said it is time for South Africans to reject the “politics of hatred.”
“We have had so much division in our past,” he said.
The district attorney has been criticized for being blind to racial inequality, much to Steenhuisen’s chagrin.
“Of course race matters in South Africa,” he said. “For decades and decades, people have been discriminated against on the basis of race.
“You are not going to undo the legacy of racism with more racism.” He said that the DA is a party that wants to unite all people.
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