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Julius Malema

Lovemore Mataire Harare Bureau
SOUTH Africa’s Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema has exonerated President Robert Mugabe from the economic problems facing Zimbabwe and apportioned blame on the flight of “white capital” from the country.

Addressing journalists in South Africa on the Marikana Commission Report yesterday, Malema said President Mugabe was a genuine African leader committed to the revolutionary radical transformation of the continent.

“President Mugabe is the only leader who knows that for real change to come, Africans will have to go through the necessary pain, exactly what Zimbabweans are going through now,” Malema said when asked about his relationship with President Mugabe.

Malema’s comments coincided with President Mugabe’s visit to South Africa where he is attending an Extraordinary Sadc Double Troika Summit, which will formulate strategies to restore political stability and security in Lesotho.

“We don’t see what’s happening in Zimbabwe as anarchy,” he said. “We don’t blame it on President Mugabe, we blame it on capital . . . (It is) because they disagree with him politically, they use their economic muscle to punish the people of Zimbabwe.”

Malema said President Mugabe was the only African leader who continued to stand up against the West and who understood what it meant to be a real African.

He said his party might not agree with President Mugabe on some issues, but from a broader perspective, the Zimbabwean leader represented the kind of Africa people wanted.

“How do you say a man who has won elections is a tyrant?” he said. “He has never presided over any massacre of our people; he continues to lead a party that advocates for very radical economic policies in Zimbabwe.”

Malema lambasted those who felt President Mugabe had over-stayed his welcome and those who hold the view that presidents should only stand for two terms.

He said he believed Africa should be governed by a leader like Cde Mugabe.

“We want an Africa where trade will happen freely,” said Malema. “We want an Africa that will one day have one currency and have one president and one government which will preside over this continent.

“We’re one. These borders were imposed on us by colonialism.”

Malema has in the past made similar comments praising President Mugabe’s leadership.