Durban - Former Constitutional Court justice Zak Yacoob has hit back at EFF leader Julius Malema.
Yacoob called Malema a racist for targeting Indians while failing to acknowledge there were also African, white and coloured people who display racist tendencies.
Malema, feeling the heat for his outrageous comments at the weekend that the majority of Indians are racist and that they and coloureds “had it easy” under apartheid, had later referred to Justice Yacoob’s statements at a function in Kharwastan in March, and which were reported in POST, in an apparent bid to justify his own comments.
Justice Yacoob had said in his speech that during the era of institutionalised racism, Indians got a bigger slice of the education and other budgets.
On the question of racist tendencies within society, he said “many Indians are racist, just as I believe that many Africans are also racist”.
“However, from my personal interaction within the community, I can state that at least 90% of Indians that I come across are racist,” he had said.
But Justice Zacoob told POST yesterday this had to be taken in context.
“I want to clarify that I was speaking to an audience that was 95% Indian and I always work on the basis that we must look at ourselves first and others after.
“The purpose for saying so was that we need to change ourselves to fit into the South African community.”
He added there were racist tendencies across the board.
“In my view there are many African, white and coloured people who are also racist and without acknowledging that and accusing Indians alone, Malema is himself being racist.”
Malema had picked on Indians at a Youth Day event in Klerksdorp on Saturday.
“There’s a tendency among Indians to look down on Africans,” he had said. “We must not forget that there was a hierarchy of oppression during apartheid.