Judgment reserved in case against PA’s Kenny Kunene for calling Julius Malema ‘an irritating cockroach’

‘When I am done I will deal with that little frog … [EFF leader] Julius Malema is an irritating cockroach that I must deal with publicly. When I meet him I want him to tell me I am a convict to my face.”

https://youtu.be/zfCTsNoS-lg

Patriotic Alliance (PA) deputy chair Kenny Kunene said this during an interview with eNCA in November 2021. Kunene was responding to Malema referring to PA leaders as “bhantinti” (bandits/convicts) during coalition discussions after the local elections.

In response, Malema gave Kunene an ultimatum to either apologise or face a R1-million lawsuit. However, Kunene is adamant that he will never apologise.

“What I said is not hate speech within the confines of the law. When you look at some case studies, Julius called Pravin Gordhan a dog and the court ruled it was not hate speech. I don’t see how the court will conclude that saying someone is an irritating cockroach is hate speech.

“He is an irritating cockroach,” reiterated Kunene.

In papers submitted to the Johannesburg Equality Court, Malema's counsel, Kameel Premhid, said “cockroach” is dehumanising language and hate speech.

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“The word cockroach means something … and that something is offensive. The term ‘cockroach’ enjoys the particular sting that it does because of its links to the Rwandan genocide,” said Premhid.

In 2010, Malema called the then DA leader Helen Zille a cockroach only to apologise almost five years later after he was called a cockroach by the former National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete, who apologised.

Malema accepted Mbete’s apology and said: “I also want to apologise to the leader of the DA for having called her a cockroach myself, when I was very young.

“I now know what it feels [like] to be called a cockroach.”

Premhid noted that Malema had apologised for calling Zille a cockroach.

“Why was that? It’s not because the word cockroach suddenly took a special meaning in South Africa. It’s not because we had a …  genocidal incident in South Africa as a result of the word cockroach being used. It was a recognition that the word cockroach in and of itself is so offensive because of how it is utilised in fraught political situations.”

Continuation of a longstanding feud?

Kunene was a prominent EFF member who served as the party’s head of campaigns, mobilisation and special projects. He left in 2013 with no clarity on why.

In 2015, Kunene threatened to reveal why he left and how his relationship with Malema soured. But he has yet to do so.

However, on Monday he said: “Malema is fragile and has low self-esteem and envies white people. That is why he even took me to court. White people have taken him to the Equality Court several times and he thinks that’s a sign of superiority and wanted to seem superior in that sense.

“[My duty] is to now make South Africans aware of who Julius is in the true sense of the word. Also, members of the EFF begin to understand what type of person he is. Malema has been working for [tobacco kingpin and alleged smuggler] Adriano Mazzotti in Beitbridge since 2013. Mazzotti owns EFF and Malema. He is even one of his backyard dwellers. During the day he says he will kill white people but at night he sleeps in the backyard of a white man.”  Mazzotti helped fund the EFF's start-up costs to register as a political party and Malema has also rented a property from him.

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2018-12-04-mazzotti-its-mrs-malemas-property-and-she-pays-rent/

On Monday, the courtroom was packed with PA supporters, including Kunene in party regalia. Only two EFF members were spotted by this reporter. Malema did not attend.

Judgment was reserved. DM