Zuma calls Malema 'leader in the making'

Published Oct 26, 2009

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By Carien du Plessis

Political Bureau

President Jacob Zuma has endorsed ANC Youth League president Julius Malema as a future leader of the ANC.

In his most emphatic display of support for the controversial youth league leader, Zuma praised Malema as a "leader in the making" and someone who would be worthy of inheriting the ANC.

Zuma was speaking in Malema's Limpopo home town of Seshego, near Polokwane, where he handed over a house and a church that had been built with Malema's help.

At the ceremonies organised by the youth league, Malema was introduced as "president" Malema, alongside Zuma.

Zuma, who has never before spoken so openly and boldly about his support for Malema, said older ANC leaders were "happy" to leave the party to leaders like Malema.

"Some of us are no longer young and when we go across the mountain in terms of age, we are happy that when we go on the organisation will remain in real hands of (those) who will think about the people," he said.

Zuma said Malema was made by the ANC.

"The ANC recognises talent and leadership and we give people an opportunity. Julius has illustrated that he is indeed a good leader and that he understands the people," Zuma said.

He later asked the congregation to pray for the youth league president "not to falter along the way because here you have a leader in the making".

Malema said he built the church after his mother, Florah Malema, a domestic worker and regular churchgoer, had died before she could accomplish her dream of doing so.

He urged the congregation not to burn the church down again when they had disagreements, as had happened once when he was a child.

He had approached business people who donated building materials and their time to rebuild the church and quipped that "(former president) Thabo Mbeki had his own millionaires, and President Jacob Zuma is also getting his own millionaires".

The three-bedroomed house, donated to jobless Sophie Maruma, was built in a similar way.

The house and the church were both handed over by Zuma.

Malema reminded the community to always think of Zuma and the ANC when they saw these buildings.

Speaking in English after Malema made fun of his "Zu-Pedi", a mixture of Zulu and Pedi, Zuma said yesterday he was "very happy" about Malema's projects "because this demonstrated what type of a person this young man Julius Malema is".

"He is a young man who is in the process of growing up."

Making fun of Malema's expanding girth, Zuma said "he is a bit bigger now and he can intimidate bigger people".

Zuma went on to say Malema did not merely speak about theory, he also did things and he was "real and not artificial".

"He shows that when he leads the ANC Youth League as its president and uses the opportunity to ask business people to help with this project.

"He could have used the money to buy (flashy) suits, but he chose to do this."

Zuma said Malema not only made an impact in his community, but in the whole of the country. He was glad Malema had introduced him to his grandmother, who had raised him and who was present at both ceremonies, because it showed Malema never forgot where he came from, Zuma said.

By helping to build the church, Malema showed his love for his late mother, Zuma said.

He said Malema would always remember where he came from.

"When he moves in the big roads in Johannesburg he can easily say, 'I am from Orlando, Soweto,' and nobody will say, 'You are wrong,' but he has decided to maintain to say that he is from Limpopo, Seshego.

"That is an example of his love for his people."

Commenting for the first time on Malema's controversial criticism of the appointment of "minorities" to key positions in the country's economic ministries and state entities, Zuma said he could understand why Malema did so.

"He really thinks he is an African. He really knows what he is," Zuma said, adding that those who read and wrote essays still did not have the same knowledge as those who grew up with poverty.

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