ANC Youth League president Collen Malatji pulled no punches when he launched a scathing attack at former president Jacob Zuma and SACP general secretary Solly Mapaila on Friday.
This happened when he addressed the Peter Mokaba Memorial Lecture in Khayelitsha as part of the build-up to the ANC 113 anniversary celebrations to be held on Saturday.
Malatji labelled Zuma, who is the leader of MK Party, a counter-revolutionary and an enemy.
He said there were people in the country they supported for close to 30 years and they never delivered anything.
“There is a man there in Nkandla who thinks we have forgotten that he stole from the poorest of the poor and moves around like a Messiah, going around collecting money like an apartheid operative to displace the ANC," he said.
Malatji also said Zuma was a real counter-revolutionary and was worse than the DA.
“He is the one who put the ANC at 40%,” he said in reference to the MK Party snatching seats from the ANC during the 2024 general elections, which now has a reduced majority in Parliament and Gauteng, and lost control of KwaZulu-Natal.
“Zuma is the enemy of the people. Zuma is a counter-revolutionary who has sold his people for nothing,” Malatji said.
Turning on Mapaila, he described him as a populist.
Mapaila is the face of the SACP that has been pushing for the communists to contest the municipal elections in 2025 despite being in alliance with the ANC and campaigning together in the elections over the past years.
He has been a vocal critic of the ANC for entering into the Government of National Unity with the DA instead of the EFF and MK Party.
“We are telling you now, that Solly Mapaila and friends must never think that they will disposition the ANC. You can’t be a populist when the ANC is under attack. When the ANC is under attack, we must all unite, close rank, and defend the ANC from the enemy,” he said.
Malatji said Mapaila was free to join other counter-revolutionaries in the MK Party and warned that there was no SACP that would go with him.
“If Solly wants to work with counter-revolutionaries, he must do it alone. He won’t leave with SACP.”
Earlier, Malatji said he wanted to remind the ANC that there was a disaster happening in the country.
“The disaster is called unemployment of the youth. It is worse than Covid, HIV, TB, and any other disease.”
He said the ANC had for years fought for political freedom, but there was no economy of freedom in their lifetime.
“If people live in poverty, stay in informal settlements, then there is no freedom,” he charged.
He said the solution was to restructure the economy.
“It does not make sense for the economy of South Africa, after 31 years, to be controlled by white people at the expense of our people. It does not make sense for blacks to be excluded from their economy after they fought for their liberation.”
Malatji said people voted against the ANC because they were protesting not because they hated the ANC.
“They protest for economic freedom now, not later.”
He also said anyone who stood in the way of economic freedom of the people, the ANC Youth League would stand against them.
“The Youth League will protect what the ANC fought for. The ANC never fought for the people of South Africa to be in prisons, to do drugs, and for teenage pregnancy. It fought for total liberation of our people,” Malatji said.