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Talent Chimutambgi Herald Reporter

The Zanu PF Youth League has condemned utterances by South African opposition party Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Mr Julius Malema, saying he risked destroying the long standing relationship with Zimbabwe which dates back to the liberation struggle.

Mr Malema recently threatened to close the Zimbabwean Embassy in South Africa on his Twitter handle, casting aspersions at the recently signed US$3.5 billion Global Compensation Deed (GCD) deal between Government and white former farmers.

Addressing a press conference in Harare, Zanu PF acting secretary for Youth Affairs Cde Tendai Chirau said Mr Malema’s utterances were a threat to the cordial relations between Zanu PF and South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) party, adding the former was working in cahoots with the G40 cabal who sought to promote anarchy in Zimbabwe.

“Malema’s continued senseless attacks on the Zimbabwean Government and ZANU PF, and the threats to close the Zimbabwean embassy in South Africa only confirm his ill-advised futile objective of undermining the strong and healthy diplomatic relations between Zimbabwe and her sovereign neighbour, South Africa, and the binding revolutionary ties, sealed with the blood of patriots, between Zanu PF and the ANC,” said Cde Chirau.

“His ill-considered groundless attack on the Government’s programme to compensate white former commercial farmers for improvements made on farms prior to the land reform programme not only exposes his lack of historical knowledge on Zimbabwean and regional geopolitics, but also betrays his intellectual childishness in the art of statecraft, the “politician” that he claims to be,” he said.

“Mr Malema is a puny, absolute political nonentity whose nostalgia for his wasted glory days with the ANC has pushed him into bed with the equally disgraced G40 clique of charlatans, whose narcissistic penchant for publicity is well documented. It is no secret that he is the latest, albeit ill-chosen, front for the furtherance of the self-exiled cabal’s counter-revolutionary pursuits,” said Cde Chirau.

He said President Mnangagwa was embarking on marathon programmes to transform the lives of Zimbabweans amid serious challenges – both human-made and natural — adding that this was a testimony that he had people at heart.

He said Mr Malema should defend the xenophobic attacks meted against Zimbabweans if he loves them.

“Under the Second Republic, captained by the shrewd Cde ED Mnangagwa, the ZANU PF-led administration has embarked on various pro-people economic policies, such as Vision 2030, which are steadily yielding fruit. In response to the Covid-19 global pandemic, Government continues to leave no stone unturned, even amid adversity, to ensure that Zimbabwean lives are safeguarded,” he added.

“If Malema is truly more concerned about Zimbabwean lives than the Zimbabwean Government, as he would have his gullible audience believe, then he should be at the forefront in defending them from the poisonous culture of targeted xenophobia endemic in his own country. He should be organising his noisy demonstrations to that end. That is precisely where his energies are more relevant,” said Cde Chirau.

Recently, the Inter-Ministerial Compensation Committee, headed by Vice President Chiwenga, had come to the Government’s conclusion to meet the Former Farm Owners’ Compensation Steering Committee (CSC) to “finalise the modalities for agreeing on a global compensation figure and subsequent payment”.