Various media outlets are reporting that a journalist from Zimbabwe's Daily News was attacked by 'goons' belonging to South Africa's former ANC youth league President, Julius Malema.

Malema was in Zimbabwe, supposedly for the wedding of the ZANU PF youth secretary for commissariat Mike Gava.

The attack on the journalist happened on Sunday when Malema was leaving a restaurant. The attack was reported to the police.

Bhethule Nkiwane, a photographer with the paper, was manhandled by 'three heavily-built goons' who threatened him with serious harm for trying to take pictures of Malema, who was accompanied by ZANU PF youth league official Tongai Kasukuwere.

Malema's bodyguards seized Nkiwane's memory card from his camera and also forced him to delete pictures of Malema.

The Daily News had been hoping to find out exactly why Malema was in Zimbabwe. There have been many rumours that he is being funded by ZANU PF to deliberately undermine President Jacob Zuma to ensure he did not effectively mediate in the Zimbabwe crisis.

Julius Malema is currently fighting charges of money laundering in South Africa.

On Monday reports in South African papers quoted Malema as saying Zimbabwe was an inspiration to Africa and that South Africa had a lot to learn from that country. He said: "We are coming here to Zimbabwe not because we are running away from problems, but to come and gain strength because what you have achieved is an inspiration to Africa.

"So we came here just to seek an inspiration and wisdom so that when we go home, we can double the spirit of fighting against imperialist forces.'"

In a threatening tone he went on to talk about South Africa's mineral resources and economic freedom and said if bloodshed was necessary, he wasn't afraid of that: "What we are asking is for them (the whites) to surrender our minerals because they did not come with any mineral. We want that land and those minerals for free because they never paid for those minerals."

"We are scared of defeat. We don't want to be defeated but seeing blood is not what we are scared of as long as that blood delivers what belongs to us we are prepared to go to that extent. Because it cannot be generations before us, which has failed to deliver what rightfully belongs to us and we equally fail the future generation. We want to be remembered as a generation of economic freedom fighters."
allAfrica