Johannesburg – EFF leader Julius Malema has taken a swipe at Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, effectively accusing him of being a conspiracy theorist over his controversial views on Covid-19 vaccines.
Malema was speaking on Thursday during the EFF’s briefing, where he focused on several issues, including the coronavirus pandemic and the issue of border control.
He slammed the expressed scepticism and sometimes open campaigning against vaccines aimed at building immunity against the Covid-19 pandemic, which had to date infected almost 1.5-million South Africans and killed over 35 000 people.
Justice Mogoeng triggered controversy last month during his public address at Tembisa Hospital, where prayed against ’’any vaccine that is of the devil and that is meant to infuse 666 in the lives of people and meant to corrupt their DNA” and called on it to be destroyed by fire.
In a clear jab at Justice Mogoeng, Malema said SA’s failure to produce its own vaccine had allowed for those who spread conspiracies about vaccines to be entertained.
“We have given room to these conspiracy theories. Perhaps if we were producing our own vaccine, we would not have some unfounded stories like 666 vaccines. Where have you ever had such madness? There is no such vaccine.
“Today, people who claim to be Christians, people who claim to be worshipping God and denounce African medicine and who survive through Western medicine want to come and tell us there is a 666 vaccine,” Malema said.
Justice Mogoeng is a devout Christian and a lay preacher, whose religious views have at times seen him being criticised due to his role as head of the judiciary.
Malema pointed out that claims the Covid-19 vaccines were a ploy to depopulate Africans were baseless.
The EFF leader called for a reliance on science and medicine as part of fighting the virus.
“We are not going to win this war of coronavirus if we are going to denounce science. Now it is science that must be applied. We need the vaccine as in yesterday.
’’I will be the first one to take it on cue. Anyone who refuses a vaccine, that person wants to spread coronavirus and kill our people,” he said.
Political Bureau