Mandla tells Malema to wash his mouth out
He said the only debate worth having was on “what brand of soap would best wash out Malema’s mouth”.
Mandla said if Malema wanted a debate on Nelson Mandela’s legacy he should apologise for his poor behaviour‚ read books‚ improve his arguments and stop destroying confidence in the country.
Malema earlier this week challenged Mandla – whom he referred to as a “small boy in politics” – to a public debate on Madiba’s legacy.
Mandla‚ who is chief of the Mvezo people‚ said Malema had once again achieved his goal of attracting attention at the cost of the country’s reputation.
“This time‚ he travelled to England to inform the world that it was mistaken about Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela’s contribution to peace and justice in South Africa‚” Mandla said in reference to a stinging attack on the country’s first democratic president by Malema during a recent speech to the Oxford Union.
Malema said the former president had sold out the revolution when he negotiated South Africa’s transition with the apartheid government. He said that “deviation from the Freedom Charter was the beginning of the selling out of the revolution”. When Mandela was released from prison he had separated from his wife Winnie and “then went to stay in a house of the rich white men . . . he was looked after by the Oppenheimers”.
But Mandla said his late grandfather had been feted not only by the vast majority of his compatriots‚ but also by the leaders and people of just about every country on earth‚ regardless of their political or economic ideology‚ or geographic location. He had been awarded numerous prizes, including the Nobel Peace Prize‚ the Ghandi Peace Prize and the Sakharov Prize.