DA Parliamentary Leader Sandra Botha MP will today lay a charge of incitement to commit a crime against ANC Youth League President Julius Malema.

The charge follows in the wake of ANC President Jacob Zuma's failure to acknowledge and denounce the dangerous, inflammatory and undemocratic nature of the statements made by Malema at a Youth Day rally in Thaba Nchu in the Free State and is aimed at trying to prevent such statements from being repeated.

Through his silence Zuma has shown a regrettable lack of leadership. His deafening silence on this issue has illustrated yet again that he is willing to put his own political and personal interests before the interests of the country and, therefore, that he is unfit to govern.

As the ANC's President and a potential future President of South Africa, it is Zuma that needed to show clear leadership and that had to issue a rebuke to the ANCYL that is commensurate to the strength of the statements made by Malema. It is simply not enough for the ANC to issue a limp-wristed statement and then expect South Africa to accept it as Zuma's unflinching commitment to democracy.

Malema's statements that the youth are "prepared to die for Zuma" and prepared to "take up arms and kill" to ensure that Zuma becomes the next President of South Africa may very well command violence if it is repeated often enough, especially in the event that Zuma's presidential bid is scuppered ahead of the next election.

This is not the kind of leadership that South Africa deserves.

Statement issued by Sandra Botha MP, Democratic Alliance parliamentary leader, June 18 2008