South Africa's firbrand politician, Julius Malema, gave a dynamic speech at the launch of the Pan-African Institute, in which he criticzed Kenya's President William Ruto. Malema received enthusiastic cheers from the audience. But did he cross a line and break the African etiquette that a guest does not speak ill of their host?
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00:00 On November 9, South African opposition leader Julius Malema visited Kenya and used the opportunity
00:06 to harshly criticize Kenyan President William Ruto for failing to deliver on the promises
00:11 he made to Kenyans when he ran for office.
00:14 I don't know if President William Ruto means it because he said so many things and I can't
00:21 locate him these days because the things he said during the election and the things he's
00:26 doing now are two different things.
00:30 Malema lashed out at Ruto, saying the president failed to put his money where his mouth is.
00:36 I heard him saying we need to do away with the dollar and build our own currency but
00:41 his actions are not speaking to anything of doing away with the dollar.
00:46 But while Malema's speech received enthusiastic cheers from the audience, the question is,
00:51 did Malema cross the line and break the general mode of African etiquette that a guest does
00:57 not speak ill of their host?
01:00 Welcome to the Flipside.
01:02 Malema's criticism of President Ruto on various issues, such as his failure to fulfill election
01:08 promises resonated with many Kenyans.
01:10 I support Mr. Malema's remarks because you see our president, he normally goes out and
01:18 comes back with nothing and he makes a lot of heavy promises.
01:22 What our opposition leader, Mr. Odinga, has been fighting for is the same thing Julius
01:27 Malema is fighting for the South Africans.
01:29 As expected, the Kenyan government reacted strongly to Malema's comments.
01:33 But why is it not okay for one African leader to hold another African leader accountable?
01:40 African leaders have to hold each other accountable.
01:44 They have found various excuses in the past where they have used the AU or the Organization
01:50 of African Union in the past as a club where they just meet, talk, exchange pleasantries
01:57 and not take each other to account.
01:59 So I am with Malema on this one.
02:02 Advocates of Pan-Africanism preach the idea of looking beyond national boundaries and
02:07 holding each other accountable.
02:09 The Pan-African call is a call for African unity, not cooperation, collaboration or coexistence.
02:17 We don't want to collaborate, we want to be one and being one means we must share the
02:23 same vision and the same direction.
02:26 If Africans cannot hold each other accountable for their actions, then who should?
02:31 Individuals and this kind of platform we are creating across countries without any border
02:37 should be the perfect platform to hold these people accountable.
02:42 Because if the structure that is meant to hold the leaders accountable is not doing
02:46 their job, then someone somewhere must do something.
02:49 While Malema finds support among many Kanyans and other Pan-Africanists in South Africa,
02:55 he remains a contentious figure and faces allegations of fueling racial tensions.
03:00 Despite the criticism against Malema's domestic South African politics, he is not all wrong
03:06 in offering an opinion about another African leader.
03:09 After all, Pan-Africanism means Africa for Africans.
03:14 President Ruto claims to be a Pan-Africanist, so it stands to reason that Malema or any
03:19 other African should be able to critique Kanyan President Ruto or any other African leader
03:25 without any kind of backlash.
03:28 And that's the flip side.
03:29 [BLANK_AUDIO]