'Voetsek!': Malema responds to call by AfriForum's Ernst Roets for Twitter to suspend him

11 January 2021 - 07:53
By unathi nkanjeni AND Unathi Nkanjeni
EFF leader Julius Malema dismissed the latest call for his Twitter account to be suspended.
Image: ALON SKUY/THE TIMES EFF leader Julius Malema dismissed the latest call for his Twitter account to be suspended.

EFF leader Julius Malema has reacted to a suggestion from AfriForum’s Ernst Roets that he should be suspended on Twitter like US president Donald Trump.

The popular app permanently suspended Trump’s official account after his tweets violated the company’s policy against glorifying violence.

Trump’s tweets were about last week’s violent protests at the US Capitol in an attempt to force Congress to block the appointment of president-elect Joe Biden.

Over the weekend, Roets joined calls for the same to happen to Malema. He said the EFF leader has been reported many times.

Over the years, Malema has been reported on Twitter, but has never been suspended. In 2019, the app ruled his “only trust a dead white man” tribute to late Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe as not violent, despite outrage online.

“If Trump’s tweets amount to incitement of violence, why hasn’t Twitter banned Julius Malema yet?” Roets asked.

Social media personality Renaldo Gouws also called for Malema to be banned from Twitter.

Malema responded, telling Roets to "voetsek" and sit down.

EFF MP Mbuyiseni Ndlozi came to his leader’s defence, saying, unlike Roets and Trump, Malema was “fighting against racism and all the violence it causes in the world”.

He added that it was Roets who "should be banned".