Julius Malema Calls Governments’ Decision To Shutdown Internet “Barbaric” & “Unacceptable”

Julius Malema is a polarising man and though many mock him for various reasons I’ve heard him say sensible things on a number of occasions. Yesterday the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters hosted the Party’s first media briefing of the year and Malema did not hold back on his thoughts concerning the government imposed internet shutdown last week.

In the video above Malema addressed a number of issues concerning Zimbabwe and around the 3:30 mark he spoke against the internet and social media ban:

It’s unacceptable to beat people, to break cellphones, to shut down internet! It’s unacceptable, it’s barbaric. In 2019, you’ve got a leader that shuts down internet and shuts down social media. That’s so backward. It’s unacceptable, Mnangagwa must know that. We are not happy with that development. We want to help Zimbabwe. We want the sanctions gone. We want bailout for Zimbabwe but we are not going to support the tyranny, the brutalization of our people. That we will never allow. We had too much hope in the new Zimbabwe. We were so happy for our people in Zimbabwe but what we saw in the past few days is scary…

The whole video is quite interesting and hearing his thoughts outside the internet ban speaks to how Malema is not necessarily the fool or radical man that he is portrayed to be.

Malema is not the only one to call out the government for this move over the past few days as LSSA (Law Society of South Africa) also put out a statement condemning the governments actions. MISA Zimbabwe along with Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights took it a step further and took the government to the High Court which finally led to the government loosening their shackles on social media which remained banned after the internet had been restored.