Tutu wants Malema to apologise

2008-06-21 07:06

Cape Town - Archbishop Desmond Tutu said on Friday he hoped ANC Youth League president Julius Malema would have the courage to apologise for his "kill for Zuma" comment.

But he also said older people in leadership positions had not been setting the younger generation an example of tolerance.

He told reporters in Cape Town that South Africa wanted a society where neither young nor old people used the kind of language heard in Malema's June 16 remarks.

"I mean when you say you're going to kill, even when you say it's not meant to be taken literally, it's unacceptable.

"I would hope that he would actually end up getting the courage and the magnanimity of saying I made a mistake, sorry."

Malema was trying to make himself look "big and strong".

"He's going to be big when he says, 'I think it's language I shouldn't have used, and I apologise. Sorry'," Tutu said.

The archbishop, a Nobel peace prize winner, said, however, he believed the older generation had been setting a bad example.

Those in leadership positions had not always provided young people with good role models.

"When you look at the kind of thing that happens in some of these (party) congresses, it's unbelievable that people will not give one another a chance to speak.

"You would have thought that one of the things we were trying to promote in our struggle (was that) we said we are not going to allow ourselves to be dictated to, we are not going to be shouted down.

"Our young people are learning bad habits. We should have been training them...

"Now we think that shouting or using language where you are threatening people is equal to debating."

The older generation should take part of the blame for not encouraging vigorous debate.

Malema has been widely criticised for the Youth Day speech at a rally near Bloemfontein, where he said, "We are prepared to take up arms and kill for Zuma".

He maintained afterwards that he did not mean the statement literally, and that he never called on anyone "to immediately take up arms".

The SA Human Rights Commission has given him until the beginning of July to retract the statement.

- SAPA