Photo: EFF / Twitter
Photo: EFF / Twitter
Cyril Ramaphosa doesn’t seem to have inspired the nation with his speech last Thursday, and the SONA Debate has made it clear – in no uncertain terms – that representatives across the political divide aren’t impressed with promises of bullet trains and new cities: A point Julius Malema was keen to ram home.
He took to the podium shortly after Mmusi Maimane laughed-off Cyril’s plans, which he likened to “introducing a faster horse in the era of the motor vehicle”.
Julius Malema at the SONA Debate
Juju also made reference to the president’s ill-fated ride on the rails just a few months ago. Ramaphosa boarded a carriage in Soshanguve, Gauteng to understand how the train service worked in South Africa. His eyes were well and truly opened when the locomotive broke down, and pulled into the station two hours behind schedule.
#MalemaOnSONA2019 Malema: So after being stuck for 4 hours in a train, in Soshanguve, the billionaire president was so traumatised that he now fantasised about a bullet train from Mesina to Cape Town.
— Economic Freedom Fighters (@EFFSouthAfrica) June 25, 2019
Julius Malema starts beef with… Oprah Winfrey?
However, there weren’t many other jokes that featured in Julius Malema’s scathing diatribe towards the president. There was a source of genuine frustration, as the EFF leader berated Cyril Ramaphosa for his business knowledge. Malema suggested that the ANC leader “is not the captain of industry” many people believe him to be.
“Your influence and command on private capital is over exaggerated”, Malema crowed. This was before Juju stated he and his colleagues “don’t see what Nelson Mandela saw in him” – Malema even lambasted Oprah Winfrey, for using her appearance at the Global Citizen festival to praise Ramaphosa as Madiba’s “hand-picked successor”.
“We were abused here during the election campaign that saw people like Oprah Winfrey rented and sneaked into the country in the name of the Global Citizen Festival, to tell us how Madiba wanted you to be President. We now ask ourselves: “What did Madiba see in you that we can’t?”
Julius Malema
SONA Debate turns sour for Cyril
Ouch. Malema sharpened his claws towards the end of the speech, finally threatening to implement impeachment proceedings against Ramaphosa if he failed to come clean about Bosasa-gate. It’s understood the corrupt firm gave Cyril R500 000 for his ANC leadership campaign – something he initially denied in Parliament:
“We don’t want to do this now, but if you carry on as a constitutional delinquent, we will impeach you. You must take full responsibility for your mistakes and tell us the steps you will take. We don’t see anyone who can replace you in this party, and that is a disaster.”
“Now help South Africa by taking it into your confidence. You’re human, you’ve made a mistake, you must confess. Don’t be the most honest dishonest person since the man who came before you. We want an honest president.”
Julius Malema
[MUST WATCH]: CIC @Julius_S_Malema told the house that we really have no SONA to debate.
— Economic Freedom Fighters (@EFFSouthAfrica) June 25, 2019
What we have is a misguided, incoherent, contradictory and proven to be futile ideas mixed in a bag of fantasies. #MalemaOnSONA2019 pic.twitter.com/nThKcttWoE
