Malema ‘Judas Sellout’ has deceived SA, alleges Kenny Kunene

Kenny Kunene gave an interview on SABC News’ Morning Live in which he threw several insults and allegations at his former comrade in the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) Julius Malema.

He was asked for the real reasons why he left the EFF after being a founder member of the party with Malema and EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu.

He started by saying that, in his opinion, Malema was a liar who had failed to produce his passport to prove that he had not met with members of the ANC in Maputo in 2015. He called Malema “Judas Sellout”, as a play on Malema’s names, including middle name Sello.

He said later in the debate that Malema deserved the “sellout” tag because of his having met Lord Robin Renwick in London, and his then appearing to change his views on several important matters.

“He does not believe in the legacy of Nelson Mandela. When I defended Mandela, they gave me a DVD that was shot by Eric Myeni of how when Mandela came out of prison he said we should nationalise, but when he came back from London he said that the hatred of capitalists towards nationalisation is so visible that you can cut it with a blade.

“Now Julius goes to meet the same people who made [Malema] call Nelson Mandela a sellout. Now [Malema] comes out of that meeting with the same man who has been part of British expansion in Africa, an imperialist, a capitalist.”

Kunene charged that Malema then publicly appeared to change his views in three ways: he changed his tune on being a supporter of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe. He also charged that Malema was acting in the interests of Western powers and white monopoly capital by trampling on the legacy of Mandela because of the alleged view that this would help to diminish support for the ANC. He also alleged that an agreement must have been ironed out for the EFF to agree to support the DA against the ANC.

“When [Julius] came back from London, he used the same words that Nelson Mandela used when he came back from London. He said he was proud to have met the captains of industry. That is how Nelson Mandela described the people he met in London. However, Nelson Mandela was very clear: ‘We are changing our economic position because we want to build a better South Africa.’ He did not sell out.

“But Julius comes back and [does not say] what he went to London for … he has absolutely no right to call himself a revolutionary or to even name Fanon, Che Guevara and all these revolutionaries who shed their blood in the name of economic revolution … there is no revolutionary left in that Judas. That is why I told my friends after he did that press conference in Alexandra when he told the nation that he has given a condition to the DA [about Herman Mashaba not being the mayor of Johannesburg] … I told my friends that Julius is going to change his tune on that because that is not his condition. And the following day, Julius changed his tune on Herman Mashaba, because it was not his decision.

“He was given conditions in London. So he’s a sellout and a Judas.”

Kunene alleged that he had asked the question during the early days of the EFF about whether the party would include white members, to which he alleged Malema said they could not be members because they would not be able to fight for the economic emancipation of black people. According to Kunene, Shivambu’s view was that “organisations that are obviously black-only … they end up failing. That was the reason we would just include them (whites) as a facade.”