Malema 'making mockery of struggle'

2010-03-14 22:57

Skhumbuzo Miya

Durban - Struggle icon Fatima Meer's brother Farouk has described ANCYL president Julius Malema as a "mockery" to the legacy of the apartheid struggle.  

He was speaking at his sister's funeral in Durban on Saturday. 

In an obvious reference to Malema, Meer said there is a young man who purports to be leading the youth, who is a mockery to the legacies of Oliver Tambo, Moses Mabhida and other struggle icons.

“Somebody must talk and restore our legacy,” he said angrily.

Meer also made a controversial call for politicians' salaries to be cut dramatically.

In a speech delivered through tears, Meer said that although there have been positive changes in the lives of the oppressed masses during the post-1994 era, it is regrettable that corruption is thriving.

“It is regrettable that in most recent times, a lot of things have gone terribly wrong. Good people remain quiet as evil flourishes.

Obscenity

“We must bring down corruption and cut the salaries of politicians. Money paid to suspended government officials is an obscenity. I cannot understand and neither could she,” he said.

A sobbing Winnie Madikizela-Mandela recalled the many years she had spent with Meer as they went in and out of detention and banishment.

She also recalled her last visit to Meer on her deathbed at St Augustine’s Hospital last week.

“After hearing news about her hospitalisation, I came dashing to hospital.

"Despite the pain she was in when she saw me, she showed me her last smile and whispered: ‘Where is Nelson?’ She then closed her eyes and that was the last time I saw her alive,” Madikizela-Mandela said.

- The Witness