Politics
Within a day after opposition politician Julius Malema warned of an armed rebellion against the South African government, the country’s ruling African National Congress (A.N.C.) said it planned to pursue legal action against him. Malema, the leader of Economic Freedom Fighters (E.F.F.), had accused the government of crushing his party’s peaceful demonstrations by violent means.
The A.N.C. issued a statement that said, “These remarks are a call to violence, are inflammatory, treasonable and seditious and should be treated with extreme seriousness”, writes Al Jazeera. The media outlet quoted one of its journalists who said that the E.F.F. lacked a military set up to overthrow the government over the “barrel of a gun.” E.F.F., which came into existence just a year ago, bagged six percent of the votes in the last general direction, emerging as a “political threat” to the incumbent government.
Malema, who claimed to be fighting against white monopoly capital, likened South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma to some of the “irritations” he expects to face in the battle, notes International Business Times. Earlier in March, Malema had challenged the government to hold a snap election after a court found Zuma guilty of breaching the country’s constitution and ordered him to repay the funds he spent in a lavish renovation of his private estate.
