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Cape Town - Edward Zuma is showing his true colours by stating that King Goodwill Zwelethini’s clearly xenophobic remarks at the Pongola gathering were “correct”, columnist Max du Preez said on Friday in response to a scathing attack by the president's son.
"We should have known Mr Zuma agreed with the Zulu king on this issue, as he has made several xenophobic remarks himself in recent weeks."
The young Zuma called Du Preez "a bitter old man", someone the country cannot afford to entertain.
He lashed out at the columnist for daring to criticise the Zulu monarch, and said he owed the King an apology.
Du Preez told News24 no reasonable person who read his column would detect any disrespect to “Zulu culture”.
"However, the Zulu king is an influential public figure playing a political role and he is paid (handsomely) by the South African taxpayer. He is thus not above criticism if he stirs up emotions that most probably have contributed to the killing and uprooting of people.
"Perhaps I should try harder to understand Mr Zuma’s cultural defensiveness, but I am surprised at his ignorance.
"His references to my position on Queen Elizabeth (?) and his remarks that I’ve ‘had a problem ever since certain people took over the country’ and that my comments ‘reek of racism’ simply prove to me that he has no idea what I’ve been doing, saying and writing the last three decades (or the last three months).
"Nothing wrong with that, but then he can’t make sweeping statements about my political views."
