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A file photo taken on February
10, 2012 shows ANC (African National Congress)
Youth League leader Julius Malema delivering a
speech during a meeting
in Pretoria. Fiery youth leader Julius Malema
vowed on March 1, 2012 to keep
fighting after South Africa's ruling ANC
expelled him in a dramatic move
seen as clearing an obstacle to
President Jacob Zuma's re-election.
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Winnie Madikizela-Mandela has publicly
endorsed the charismatic but controversial Julius Malema, who earlier this year
was expelled from the African National Congress, newspapers reported Thursday.
And the former wife of anti-apartheid
legend Nelson Mandela also appeared to snub Mandela's current wife, Graca
Machel.
Madikizela-Mandela made a public
appearance with Malema at Qunu, the home village of her former husband,
anti-apartheid legend Nelson Mandela, as the country celebrated his 94th
birthday Wednesday, The
Sowetan newspaper reported.
"Thank you very much for making
us see in our lifetime that it is possible to liberate our people economically
and better their lives," Madikizela-Mandela said in a tribute to Malema,
who once led the ANC's youth league.
"Thank you very much for leading
that campaign because it is as a result of your emphasis, the youth league's
emphasis, on the role we should be playing as freedom fighters," she
added.
The firebrand Malema, whom
Madikizela-Mandela referred to as her "grandson", was once a vocal
campaigner for President Jacob Zuma, at one point vowing to "kill"
for him.
But his fiery rhetoric eventually
became too much, as Malema advocated seizing mines and farms and called for
"regime change" in democratic Botswana.
He was sent packing from the ANC in
April, ostensibly for insubordination, but still has a power base in the youth
section of the movement, the ANC Youth League, some of whose members insist he
is still their leader.
Madikizela-Mandela, who has also been
accused of populism, castigated the ANC a week ago saying the party was abusing
the Mandela family name, pulling it up only when needed, yet treating the family
shabbily.
She said it was "most
painful" that 18 years after the advent of democracy in South Africa
"we still have people who say we have failed them."
"Our country is in deep trouble
as we make promises, and the promises are not fulfilled," she added.
Winnie had also been scheduled to
inaugurate a child care centre with Mandela's wife Graca Machel. But Machel,
after being kept waiting for an hour, eventually left.
Winnie later arrived for the ceremony
in the company of the former youth league leaders.
"It's a pity that my little
sister Graca left," she said.
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