During his tenure as ANC youth president, Julius Malema famously kicked a BBC journalist out of a press conference. While slighting Zanu-PF opposition, Malema was interrupted by an interjection from the BBC’s Jonah Fisher. Warning Fisher, Malema said “here you behave, or else you jump”, which was met with laughter.
Malema and Fisher had a back-and-forth before Malema called Fisher a “small boy”, demanding he leave the press conference. Fisher retorted that he did not want to be insulted. Malema fired back, calling him a “bloody agent”.
During the earlier years of Caster Semenya’s tumultuous career, Malema was a staunch defender of Athletics South Africa’s Leonard Chuene, who lied about thegender testingconducted on Semenya. Reacting to the claims that Semenya was a “hermaphrodite”, Julius shot back, “what is that? Somebody tell me, what is hermaphrodite in Pedi?
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There’s no such thing, hermaphrodite, in Pedi. So don’t impose your hermaphrodite concepts on us.” During his speech after the EFF’S “nationwide shutdown”, Malema was quick to toot his own horn, claiming he was “in charge” of South Africa. Sharing his views on how many shops were successfully closed, he said that he had everyone “by [the] scrotum” and that there was nothing the opposition could do.
In an appearance at the University of Pretoria’s Mamelodi campus, Malema made some wild claims during a memorial lecture on the life of Solomon Mahlangu. During a segment on the atrocities of apartheid,hesaid, “White people must stop being cry babies” in reference to the black lives lost during the regime. The statement was also a defence for Jacob Zuma, whom he has both supported and criticised.
One of the statements he made that saw him guilty of hate speech followed the rape case of Jacob Zuma. Speaking of the rape case at a student gathering at the time, Malema claimed that “when a woman didn’t enjoy it, she leaves early in the morning. Those who had a nice time will wait until the sun comes out, request breakfast and ask for taxi money.” Sonke Gender Justice took Malema to courtfor the statement, and he was ordered to make an apology and pay R50,000 to a shelter for abused women.
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