He made the land issue the centre of his entire speech.
EFF leader Julius Malema was on firebrand mode on Wednesday this week, expressing just how much his party was ready for land return.
Malema addressed scores of supporters who had come to fill the Wesselton stadium in Ermelo on Human Rights Day and said land return meant dignity for black people.
“What is Human Rights Day without land?” Malema said to thunderous applause.
“What is Human Rights Day in a shack? There is no Human Rights Day without dignity and dignity is on the land,” he said.
He said on Human Rights Day they remember the previous generations who fought and defeated “the most brutal regime” and now they are taking “the spear” to continue the fight and show their refusal to be garden boys or domestic workers like their parents.
He said they will be the generation “that owns the means of production” and that being “garden boys and domestic workers ended with our parents”.
“The future is land. Without land we are doomed. We will have dignity and we will no longer be garden boys. They want you to be garden boys and kitchen girls like your parents. We are saying no,” Malema said.
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Malema was accompanied by the entire leadership – Central Command Team members and the Mpumalanga provincial leadership, including deputy president Floyd Shivambu, chairman Dali Mpofu, secretary Godrich Gardee, deputy secretary Hlengiwe Hlophe-Maxon Mukhaliphi and provincial leader Collen Sedibe.
Malema took a swipe at whites who want to leave South Africa because of the motion they tabled in Parliament in 27 February 2018 to change the Constitution to allow expropriation of land without compensation, saying if they want to leave “they must go”.
“But they must leave the keys of the tractors because we want to work the land; they must leave the keys of the houses, because we want to live in those houses. They must leave everything that they did not come with to South Africa,” Malema said to applause.
He said what he knows is that they will be poor in Australia because in Australia “there are no black people to exploit”.
“They are rich here because they are exploiting black people. Let them go but we know they will come back with their tails between their legs. We will hire them because we will be owners of the farms.
“And as to what we are going to do with the land is our business and none of your business,” Malema said to roaring applause.
He urged his supporters in the Mpumalanga province to vote for the EFF in the 2019 general elections and “remove the stooges of DD Mabuza”.
“We want to remove the stooges of DD Mabuza here in Mpumalanga, here in Gert Sibande,” Malema said to further applause.
He slammed the youths who smoke Nyaope, saying they are “not black people” before coming to those who don’t know history.
“If you don’t know your history you are likely to be lost and therefore we don’t want to lead a lost generation. A generation of Babes Wodumo, a generation of Vosho. We want to lead a politically conscious generation, a militant, a radical, a fearless generation that speaks truth to power and that is not scared of anyone,” he said.
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In introducing Malema, Shivambu described him as “a revolutionary” and Malema in return spoke of Shivambu as an action-man both “practical and theorical” but said journalists should not “feel threatened”.
“No, Deputy President, journalists should not feel threatened,” he said, in reference to the manhandling of Netwerk24 journalist Andriaan de Kock on Tuesday morning (20 Mar).
“Comrades,” Malema said, “let us respect the freedom of the media. Let journalists take us pictures and we must pose for them because we are photogenic. No journalists should feel threatened in the EFF.
“But let us tell you journalists, where you tweet or speak nonsense we shall confront you because media freedom should not suppress contestation of ideas. Journalists must not be sensitive, they must be open to criticism the same way they criticise us,” Malema said.
(edited by ZK)
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