EFF says calling Malema 'cockroach' falls outside bounds of political discourse

JOHANNESBURG -The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) says the labelling of its president, Julius Malema, as a “cockroach” falls outside the bounds of political discourse. 

On Tuesday, the Gauteng High Court ordered suspended Patriotic Alliance (PA) deputy president Kenny Kunene to apologise to Malema. 

On 17 November 2021, Kunene called the EFF leader a “cockroach” four times during a televised interview. 

Kunene joined the EFF a few months after it was formed in 2013, developing a close relationship with the party’s leader, Malema.

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Since leaving the EFF, their relationship has soured, with the two men regularly exchanging insults in public. 

During the televised interview in question, Kunene’s “cockroach” comments came as a reaction to Malema calling the PA a party of criminals. 

However, the EFF and high court judge, David Wilson, are in agreement that Kunene crossed a line by calling Malema a cockroach. 

Judge Wilson said the term cockroach is historically problematic, referencing the 1994 Rwandan genocide, where the massacred Tutsi people were referred to as cockroaches.