Daily Sun (August 8 2013) - SHE CALLED him a "Hitler" - after the genocidal German war dictator! But Julius Malema was in a forgiving mood yesterday, despite the attack by Agang SA leader Mamphela Ramphele. "I STILL LOVE AND RESPECT HER," HE TOLD DAILY SUN !

However, the red-bereted Malema, commander-in-chief of his Economic Freedom Fighters, said the comment about him was "disappointing". Ramphele lashed out at Malema on Tuesday, likening him to Adolf Hitler or the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. She was talking in Polokwane, Limpopo.

Beeld newspaper quoted Ramphele as saying: "Do not forget how Hitler and Mussolini emerged as leaders because desperate people were looking for an alternative. "Malema is no alternative. Corruption charges are staring him in the face and he does not pay his taxes."

Both Hitler, fuhrer (leader) of the German Nazi Party and Mussolini, leader of the National Fascist Party in Italy, were defeated in World War II, in which millions of soldiers and civilians died. Responding to Ramphele yesterday, Malema told Daily Sun: "I am disappointed in her. She promised a different style of politics which is dignified, but now she has resorted to name-calling. "But I still love her and respect her."

Malema refused to comment on whether he could work with Ramphele in the near future. Ramphele's comments came as she delivered the Frederik van Zyl Slabbert memorial lecture at Pietersburg High School. She said Malema's promise of land expropriation to desperate people was dangerous.

Slabbert, who was her longtime friend, would have been discouraged if he had seen how many people still do not have homes, jobs or food 20 years after democracy. Slabbert, leader of the then Progressive Federal Party (PFP) and a founder of the Institute for Democracy in SA (Idasa) died in 2010.

Ramphele urged people to use their right to vote in next year's election. "Use your mind and think of the future. Another five years of the current dismantling of our democracy will cause irreparable damage."

Meanwhile , Ramphele, in another attack on President Jacob Zuma, yesterday said many SA leaders fail to follow the Constitution.

"Our President does not even understand the difference between parliamentary democracy and constitutional democracy," she said at a meeting in Joburg on the eve of Women's Day. "Leaders are building palaces with money that should have been used to build schools and hospitals," she said. Ramphele said women continued to hold families together but were ignored in governance roles.

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