Firebrand South African opposition leader Julius Malema has accused the United Kingdom of blocking his visa application for political reasons, preventing him from speaking at an event at Cambridge University this week.<\/p>\n
The leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), known for his outspoken criticism of Western colonial legacies, described the move as an effort to silence his views on Africa\u2019s historical injustices.<\/p>\n
Malema took to social media platform X, stating that he had been assured his visa was being processed but was informed of its rejection while awaiting his flight at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe received a regret letter just four hours before our departure. This is unacceptable and spineless.\u201d<\/p>\n
He accused the British authorities of \u201cproviding no substantial justification\u201d for the rejection of his application.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is clear to me that this is an attempt to silence a dissenting political perspective.<\/p>\n
The outspoken politician has frequently called for reparations and a formal apology from Britain over colonialism, accusing the British monarchy of playing a central role in the transatlantic slave trade and imperial abuses.<\/p>\n
His scheduled speech at the Africa-themed event at Cambridge University was expected to touch on these themes.<\/p>\n
Malema, once a rising star within South Africa\u2019s African National Congress before his expulsion in 2012, has consistently taken anti-Western positions on global conflicts.<\/p>\n
He has backed Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine and accused Western nations of supporting what he calls Israel\u2019s \u201cgenocide\u201d in Gaza.<\/p>\n
His views, often controversial, have positioned him as one of Africa\u2019s most vocal critics of Western influence on the continent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Firebrand South African opposition leader Julius Malema has accused the United Kingdom of blocking his visa application for political reasons, preventing him from speaking at an event at Cambridge University this week. The leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), known for his outspoken criticism of Western colonial legacies, described the move as an effort […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9851,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":2,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","source_name":"APA News","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2362,33,30],"tags":[2059,1628,1410],"class_list":["post-16193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-politics","category-southern-africa","tag-economic-freedom-fighters-eff","tag-julius-malema","tag-united-kingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}