Renowned and controversial South African politician Julius Malema of the Economic Freedom Fighters Party (EFF) recently turned down a request to meet Mr Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine while the latter visited South Africa leaving the Kyadondo East legislator visibly embarrassed by the snub, the Kampala post reports.
Bobi Wine was in South Africa from 27th to 1st April to perform at music shows in Johannesburg, Durban, Cape Town and East London. He was accompanied by fellow singers Nubian Li, Ambassador Ssali and a one Karitus Kario.
Bobi’s people power pressure group draws a lot of inspiration from Malema’s militant far left political party organisation, which was started when he was expelled as president of the ruling African National Congress Youth League in 2013. From the pumped-up clenched fist to the red overalls and red beret, Bobi’s admiration for Julius Malema is unmistakable. It is therefore no coincidence that Bobi’s current “People Power” identity pressure group is also borrowed from Malema’s EFF party slogan of “people’s power for economic freedom in our lifetime.”
On 3rd March 2019, Malema, 38, and just a year older than Bobi Wine, celebrated his birthday. Bobi seized the moment to send the young South African firebrand politician a birthday message: “A revolutionary happy birthday to our brother and comrade CIC @Julius_S_Malema a true inspiration to all budding young revolutionaries on the African continent,” purred Bobi Wine. Malema, quite interestingly, did not acknowledge the good will message from his Ugandan contemporary.
A source in South Africa told the Kampala Post Malema’s apparent rejection of Bobi Wine’s advances as a big blow to the flamboyant singer-cum politician, who has sought to cultivate a larger than life figure in his nascent political career to date. The source, however, quickly added that Malema’s attitude towards Bobi Wine can be explained.
President Yoweri Museveni was a couple of days earlier in the South African capital Pretoria attending a two day SADC Solidarity Conference on Western Sahara at the invitation of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa during which he presented a key note address.
As one of Africa’s best known post-independence modern revolutionaries and Pan-Africanist, Museveni is highly revered on the continent, including South Africa. During the late 80’s and early 90’s, Museveni hosted South African guerrillas and freedom fighters in Uganda, providing much needed military support and training until the eventual total defeat of Apartheid in South Africa in 1994.
“President Museveni and the NRM party may have already reached out to Malema, and that could explain the cold shoulder extended by EFF party to Bobi Wine’s pressure group,” added the source.