United Democratic Movement (UDM) leader and Deputy Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, Bantu Holomisa, lost his temper during a live broadcast on Gagasi FM, clashing with both a listener and host Alex Mthiyane in a fiery exchange that left listeners stunned.

The confrontation began after a caller phoned in to express frustration with Holomisa’s attitude, accusing him of arrogance.

“I’m noticing that the general is arrogant,” said the caller.

“The whole purpose of inviting him was so he could answer questions we have as citizens. There was a previous caller, and the general responded by saying the person was speaking in his own language and questioned whether he had been taught respect in his language. For me, that is discrimination,” said the caller. 

Holomisa fired back, saying, “This is a compliment if you are saying I’m arrogant. You are also arrogant.”

“General, you are a public figure. We don’t need these people on this radio station because they can’t answer questions, but we voted for them to be there,” continued the caller. 

Holomisa dismissed the claim, responding, “You are talking nonsense. You didn’t vote for me, don’t talk lies.” 

When the caller called him “useless,” Holomisa snapped: “Thank you very much, you didn’t vote for me, go to hell.”

The caller pressed further on saying, “Please can we have proper people to answer and account, not this member of Parliament that can’t even account and is arrogant.”

Mthiyane intervened, asking Holomisa to withdraw his remarks. “General, I know you have to respond because he’s attacking you, but you just said ‘go to hell,’ and I’m going to ask you to retract that particular phrase. You are a deputy minister. Yes, he didn’t vote for you, but you are still his leader,” he said.

Holomisa refused, insisting: “He told you that I’m not his leader and he didn’t vote for me. Why are you protecting him, leaving him and allowing him to disrespect me? I’m not going to do that. If you are not satisfied, go to hell as well. He’s swearing at me and you are not protecting me.”

“I’m a bit disappointed that we have leaders like you. That is why we have issues at Goma and at the borders, it’s because we have people like you,” said the caller. 

Mthiyane ended the interview after 30 minutes, thanking Holomisa for his time but cutting short the discussion. 

”Deputy minister let me release you there, we will not continue with this conversation anymore but we thank you for having been with us for the past 30 minutes,” said Mthiyane. 

hope.ntanzi@iol.co.za 

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