Suspended President of the African National Congress Youth League, Julius Malema, is under attack from all angles it seems: from the ANC’s disciplinary committee, from cartoonists depicting him wearing a nappy, and now a cross-dressing comedian.

Julius Malema rose to fame, or notoriety, for singing at rallies the anti-apartheid era song, Ayasab’ amagwala (the cowards are scared), also known as the “shoot the Boer” song, perhaps acceptable in pre-1990 South Africa but not so 22 years later. A South African court declared it “unconstitutional and unlawful” for spreading hatred and distrust.

Julius Malema expelled from the ANC

Malema got into more trouble for attacking President Jacob Zuma and calling for regime change in Botswana. It was arguably these utterances more than singing “shoot the Boer” that led to an an ANC disciplinary review last August. Malema was expelled from the ANC in November 2011, a decision upheld on appeal in February of this year.

The somewhat immodest Mr Malema said that far from being disciplined and lampooned the people of South Africa should treat him in the same way they treated Nelson Mandela, to which the cross-dressing South African comedian ‘Evita Bezuidenhout’, also known as playwright and satirist Pieter Dirk Uys, retorted, “What a great idea. Let’s start with 27 years in jail”.

There’s a moral or two in this story for aspiring politicians: you can just about say anything you like but don’t compare yourself to Nelson Mandela and beware of men dressed in women’s clothing.