WATCH | Julius Malema opens up about growing up without knowing his dad

Malema

Cape Town – EFF leader Julius Malema recently shared personal insights about his upbringing, revealing he grew up without knowing his father.

Raised by his grandmother, Malema said that both his mother and grandmother kept his father’s identity a secret, with his grandmother honouring his late mother’s wishes not to disclose the information.

“I don’t know my father. When I asked my mother about it, she’d become very angry.

“My grandmother would say: ‘If she doesn’t want to tell you, I can’t tell you. It’s not my place to tell you.’ My mother passed on before my grandmother, and I thought it was a great opportunity [to ask her]. I said: ‘Now that she’s no more, she can’t blame you for anything. Tell me who my father is.’ She said she can’t go against the dead’s wishes,” said Malema.
He expressed no desire to learn about his father, saying he focuses on being a father to his three sons, EFF members, and the nation.

“I’ve never known my father and I don’t see a need to because I’m a father. I can’t say I’m an orphan because I’m a father to my three boys and to the members of the EFF. I’m a father of the nation. Instead of mourning about not having a father, I’m fathering people — so I don’t see the need,” he said.

Despite his challenging childhood, including poverty and his mother’s battle with severe epilepsy, Malema credited his mother’s strict Christian upbringing for shaping his character.

 

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