Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News – 18-06-2018
A political analyst has told Radio Islam that the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF)are trying to create delusions in society to save itself by focusing on controversial issues and have cautioned political parties about calling Indians racist.
Party leader Julius Malema has come under fire after he accused the majority of Indians of being racist.
Speaking at a Youth Day event at Matlosana Stadium in Klerksdorp in the North West, the firebrand politician said not all South Africans of colour suffered the same during Apartheid.
Malema said that Indians had all sorts of resources Africans didn’t have, as did Coloureds.
He further attacked senior Indian journalists, who came to National Treasury’s Ismail Momoniat defence after party chief whip Floyd Shivambu objected to the presence of a “non-African” deputy director-general at a committee meeting, earlier in June.
Political analyst Sanusha Naidoo says the EFF seems to have lost its unifying tool.
“It was always Jacob Zuma, Jacob Zuma and now that Jacob Zuma is no longer president, I think they’re beginning to find themselves fraught within spaces where they are trying to drape a coherence. But of course the questions of race becomes the questions of what they want to achieve.”
Naidoo says the danger of Malema’s statements does not create social cohesion and that he has become reckless.
She says because Indians are a minority group, they are seen as easy targets for political parties.
“The Indian community has been standing up and the moment they start standing up and there’s backlash, then they have to start dealing with this. Because I think what this does is that this fuels not just questions like whether Indians are racist. The problem here is that once you call somebody a racist, the onus of truth to disprove yourself of not being racist is on the person and it’s a very difficult case to undertake.”
Naidoo says the South African National Editors Forum (SANEF) and other regulatory bodies that deal with free speech should address the issues of prejudice and race as Malema’s statements is not just about Indian people but continues to fuel anti-sentiment.
Listen to the interview with Sanusha Naidoo
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