Writer who said Mugabe was greater than Mandela now South African MP

A South African writer who said Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was the greatest African statesman alive today, just one month before the crucial 2013 harmonised elections, is now a Member of Parliament under Julius Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters.

Andile Mngxitama wrote the article entitled: Mugabe hero of African liberation in the Sunday Independent of 2 June 2013.

The paper’s website was hacked, shutting it down for two hours, by a group calling itself Anonymous Africa because the Independent was selling out African people by glorifying Mugabe.

Mngxitama, argued that Mugabe was greater than South African icon Nelson Mandela, who was still alive but ill, arguing that “greatness here must be evaluated on the criteria of whether the person who claims the position of leadership of his or her people against colonialism, apartheid and white rule has been able to guide the nation to greater liberation, dignity and independence”.

He added: “If we judged only on these criteria, not on the whims of popularity gained from affability and praise by Europe and the US, then Mugabe stands head and shoulders above the rest.”

Mngxitama, author of several essays including: Blacks can’t be racist, agreed with Mugabe that Mandela had been soft on whites and this had slowed change in South Africa.

“So when Mugabe says Mandela has been soft on whites at the expense of blacks he speaks a simple truth. He knows that the cost of liberation is condemnation. To be considered a saint in Western eyes is a curse black leaders should avoid like the plague,” he wrote.

The EFF won 25 seats out of the 400 seats in the South African parliament in the May elections making it the third largest party in the country. It was beaten by the African National Congress which won 249 seats and the Democratic Alliance which walked away with 89 seats.

Some 13 political parties out of the 29 that contested the elections are represented in parliament.

South African elections are held on a proportional representation system where all votes are taken into account. A party needed only 0.25 percent of the national vote (between 37 000 and 50 000 votes out of 18 million votes) to get a seat.

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