Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula lambasted those who booed President Jacob Zuma when he walked onto the pitch at FNB Stadium in Johannesburg on Wednesday evening.
[full]”These wolves hidden in the sheep skin were not victorious in their booing,” Mbalula said in Johannesburg on Thursday.
“The person they are trying to elevate in the personae of our president using platforms of national importance, they must know they have failed.
“We will defeat them politically, for all their ideas they stand for, because they are hooligans; cowards of non-description.”
Jeers and boos rang out as Zuma’s name was called out and he walked onto the field for the post-match ceremony following Bafana Bafana’s 5-0 thrashing by Brazil in an international friendly.
Zuma was ceremonially handing over the hosting of the Fifa World Cup to Brazil, the host nation for the 2014 edition starting in June.
He was joined on a stage by Mbalula, SA Football Association president Danny Jordaan and several Brazilian dignitaries, who received a commemorative plaque marking the event.
Zuma was famously booed at the memorial service for former president Nelson Mandela at the same venue in December last year.
Mbalula said political opponents should try to defeat a person through their ideas, rather than by booing them.
“They will be defeated because President Jacob Zuma will not diminish because of the booing. He is a tsunami, more than a hurricane,” Mbalula said.
“All of their plans, infused in Satanism at best, will never succeed in the future because their plans are nothing else but filled with evil.”
He said the attempt to embarrass the President and the country did not succeed as the celebrations on the night and the sounds of vuvuzelas drowned out their jeers.
“From what I’ve seen yesterday, I would like to congratulate the people of South Africa. It was a glorious moment – there was a vibe and even though it was raining, people came out in their numbers.”[/full]