CIC JULIUS MALEMA'S STATEMENT OF APOLOGY TO PRESIDENT RAMAPHOSA AND HIS FAMILY

Thursday, 20 February 2020

Today, following President Ramaphosa's apology to my wife and family, I stood in parliament to return the same hand to him, his departed wife, Nomazizi and his entire family.

I was however, drowned down by ruling party benches without any protection from presiding officers.

After a long discussion with my wife about the President's apology, I have decided to pen down the apology that I should have communicated on the platform of the Joint Sitting of Parliament where it belonged.

My wife was assaulted through terrible, malicious and harmful comments by an ANC MP during SONA last week Thursday, 13 February 2020. The same harmful comments were repeated in the media by the same ANC MP. I never said anything, neither did the EFF. The same ANC MP stood once more and made the same comments during the debate, five days after the initial moment during the SONA. Still, we did nothing to dignify these comments with a response.

It was at this stage that my response to the SONA was disrupted through many points of order, demanding that I give dignity to the harmful comments about my wife with a response.

On all these occasions the ANC, in particular, the president did nothing, despite the fact that when the ANC member concerned fired at me and my wife, he stood, on all occasions, right next to the president and ANC Chief Whip.

Each time we avoided the question because of its sensitivity, members of the ANC confused this to mean cowardice or worse, that I had something to hide.

Nevertheless, I complied and answered the question with all the truthfulness I could master and under oath. I would like to reiterate that I have never laid a hand on my wife or any other woman in my life.

If there should be evidence produced to dispute my claim, even as minute as a molecule, I will be prepared to resign as an MP and President of the EFF. This I will do before the matter can serve in a competent court of law.

To this extent, it is fair to read the actions of this ANC MP as a collective action by the entire ANC using the person of my wife, malicious and harmful Gender-Based Violence allegations, to settle a political score. No other reading is possible because the allegations were repeated more than once, and on more than one sitting.

In retrospect, I accept that I should have known better not to indulge myself in the same degeneration that the ANC caucus visited upon my person and that of my wife. It was therefore in a desperate act of personal defence which I now regret because of how critical the matter of Gender-Based Violence is for all of us as a country.

I hope the president can accept my apology, together with his family, which I offer sincerely.

I also hope that such a degeneration never occurs again where ANC MPs use personal matters, masquerading in false and malicious accusations to score political points.

I also would like to apologize to all South Africans who were offended in the process, in particular victims of Gender-Based Violence.

In conclusion, I would like to mention that I have personally communicated my apology directly to President Ramaphosa in a phone call. I, therefore, hope that this puts the matter behind both of us.

Issued by the Economic Freedom Fighters, 20 February 2020