Equality Court verdict: Malema has continued his sexist rampage

The DA Youth welcomes the Johannesburg Equality Court's finding that ANC Youth League (ANCYL) president Julius Malema is guilty of hate speech and harassment. Malema must now apologise unconditionally if he has any respect for the institutions of our constitutional democracy.

The charge was laid at the Equality Court after Malema said that the woman who accused President Zuma of raping her had enjoyed herself because she stayed for breakfast and asked for money. It showed Malema's disgraceful, sexist attitude and he still continues to promote sexism and hate towards women. Last week, at the University of Johannesburg, he made shocking sexist remarks against Helen Zille and Patricia de Lille. It is clear that his sexist attitude towards women has not changed.

It is time the ANC took action and brought Malema to book. Malema, for his part, should unconditionally apologise for the damage he is causing. Not only is he offending women, but he is inciting violence with his "kill the boers, they are rapists" chants.

The ANC has condoned his behaviour repeatedly, which says a great deal about the state of that party.

The fact is that, through their words and actions, the ANC is rapidly losing any and all credibility. Their leader had unprotected sex outside of marriage which contradicts his public position on the fight against Aids, their national spokesperson spent the end of last week in jail and their youth leader was defended by their national spokesperson for singing about exterminating an entire group of people - no doubt in an attempt to divert attention from the fact that he and his companies are not complying with tax laws. Following all that, we had Gwede Mantashe again defending Malema.

This Equality Court judgment should be a wake-up call for the ANC. The ANC should force Malema to apologise for his slew of sexist attacks and also for inciting the murder of a group of people - the sort of comments that most political organisations would want to shy away from, but which the ANC is actively defending. Malema should apologise; so should the ANC.

Statement issued by Khume Ramulifho, MPL, Democratic Alliance national youth spokesperson, March 15 2010

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