Julius Malema addressed the Oxford Union over on Mud Island last night, the EFF leader in fine voice as he delivered a number of stinging attacks on prominent political figures.

Some went down better than others, but we’ll start with his comments on former friend JZ as reported on TimesLive:

“The ANC thinks that it is South Africa, and not the other way around. They think that what happens in South Africa must happen through them (alone) or nothing must happen….That arrogance has led to a point where Jacob Zuma says he loves the ANC more than the country, that the ANC comes first and South Africa later.

“When asked about it, because he’s intellectually challenged, he said ‘no, the ANC brought democracy to SA’.  I say, no: it’s the people of SA who brought about a democratic South Africa. In 1994 the ANC had less than 500,000 members, yet millions voted for the ANC. The ANC was formed in 1912. SA existed way before 1912. South Africa existed even before the arrival of Jan van Riebeeck in 1652. Not even Van Riebeeck can tell me the arrival of settlers made South Africa what it is. It was there with its beautiful oceans and weather, unlike the weather here.”

Always end on a light note after a few sharp barbs, good stuff. Over to what he had to say about Madiba then, where he took aim before softening at the end:

“The deviation from the freedom charter was the beginning of selling out of the revolution. When Mandela returned from prison he got separated from Winnie Mandela and went to stay in a house of a rich white man, he was looked after by the Oppenheimers, Mandela used to attend those club meetings of those white men who owned the SA economy. He stayed in one of their houses, they had access to him 24 hours. They told him what he represented would not be achieved, that’s when he turned against himself. The Nelson we celebrate now is a stage-managed Mandela who compromised the principles of the revolution, which are captured in the Freedom Charter.

The Freedom Charter is the bible of the SA revolution. Any deviation from that is a sellout position. We normally don’t use phrases like Mandela sold out, he was too old, he was tired, he left it to us. We have to pick it up from where he left it. That’s why he said the struggle is not over, political freedom is incomplete without economic freedom. I will say Nelson took us to a point and left it to us to take it further.”

To me that sounds like one of those ‘I’m not saying he’s a sellout buuuut…’ arguments, although his most pointed attacks came at the expense of those rich off the back of mining money:

He said the likes of mining magnate [Patrice] Motsepe and deputy president [Cyril] Ramaphosa were billionaires today even though they had “not invented anything, unlike that young man who invented Facebook”.

“He (Motsepe) just went to sell his skin, ‘I’m black, I’ve got political connections, I’ll protect your company give me shares’. Just like Cyril did,” Malema alleged.

He added: “Then the (Lonmin) chairman calls from London, ‘Cyril you must now activate your contacts’ and  he’s now under pressure. ‘Yhuuu what must I do? Bring the soldiers, bring the soldiers’… he has no skill.”

Those are a couple of powerful figures right there, the kind of folks you’d rather have in your corner, so props to Julius for not backing down.

Then again if one was looking at taking a few pot shots at Julius they wouldn’t have to look very hard.

[source:timeslive]