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Johannesburg – ANCYL president Collen Maine’s calling EFF members monkeys was unacceptable, the ANC said on Monday.
"It's offensive to describe a people, because you don't agree with them, [as] monkeys, especially in the context of South Africa where monkeys were used to describe certain groups of people based on racial expression," spokesperson Zizi Kodwa said.
South Africans were still carrying the scars of racism and such comments should not be seen as jokes or gestures.
"Any description of people as any animal, we don't believe is correct."
Maine made the comments at a rally in Soshanguve, north of Pretoria, at the weekend. He warned opposition parties against fighting with President Jacob Zuma.
"The country will be defended. We cannot allow Julius Malema and his monkeys to run our country amok and turn this country into a banana republic," Maine reportedly said, according to the SABC.
He warned the EFF against disrupting the state of the nation address on Thursday, as they had last year, and said there would be civil war if they did.
"The youth league will physically remove woodworkers from Parliament," he was quoted as saying.
Malema got a G in woodwork, on the standard grade, in matric.
Kodwa said Maine's threats were due to frustration with the "theatrics" seen in Parliament.
"The decorum and the dignity of Parliament has almost gone into thin air. And people are beginning to feel that they need to protect their democracy and the liberation, and the Youth League must be understood in that context."
Kodwa said Maine's call for a civil war was undesirable.
