ZILLE STOOPED LOW WITH CIRCUMCISION TAUNT AGAINST MALEMA - SAYS PHOSA
Carien Du Plessis

Argus Online
February 24, 2009

DA leader Helen Zille should think about the man she is sleeping with before calling other people inkwenkwe, or "uncircumcised boys", ANC treasurer-general Mathews Phosa said.

In what is fast turning into a verbal mud-slinging match between the parties and their youth wings, Phosa referred to off-the-cuff remarks made by Zille in KwaNobuhle near Port Elizabeth over the weekend, where she referred to ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema as inkwenkwe.

Zille was responding to remarks reportedly made by Malema on Saturday at an ANC rally in Cato Manor near Durban, when he called her a "racist, colonialist and imperialist" and said her deputy, Joe Seremane's role "is to smile at the madam every time".

Phosa said an inkwenkwe was the lowest possible thing that you could call a man in Xhosa.

"What she says is he is uncircumcised.

"What if we say that about her husband, because he is not circumcised.

"Malema is not circumcised, but let us not go there, let's keep it decent.

"We think the call is more an electioneering stunt and must be understood in that context," he said.

"She stooped very low in her response, very low. It means that she is not able to take the punches as we can.

"She is hysterical.

"As a leader she went below the bar with her response," he said.

Phosa said the ANC would respond to Zille's remarks in a similar way, "to try to make her aware that if you throw mud, there's a lot of mud around".

"Anyone can throw mud."

He said the DA was playing people and not policies.

He denied that Malema had done the same in his remarks.

DA Youth leader Khume Ramulifo on Sunday challenged Malema to a public debate about policy issues, but yesterday said Malema had turned down this invitation.

Ramulifo also slammed Malema for referring to him "using the perversely racist term 'garden boy'".

Accusing Malema of lacking substance, he said: "Malema has also once again shown himself to be a petty little man who is unable to engage in meaningful debate and capable only of resorting to the basest form of gutter politics to make his point."