Occupy land – Cyril is ‘bluffing’, says Juju

EFF leader takes several jibes at President Ramaphosa in parly.

EFF leader Julius Malema was in fighting spirit in response to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s budget vote speech in parliament.

Malema reminded Ramaphosa he had promised a job summit in his first speech as president, and that was still to happen.

He said Jeremy Cronin and Blade Nzimande were taking the country back to policies from 1996. “You cannot grow the country with foreign direct investment only.”

Malema also called Ramaphosa out for not having trimmed the size of Cabinet. “The majority of those deputy ministers are extremely useless.”

Malema said it was “unnecessary” to have a deputy minister in a useless department such as the department of small business.

He said reducing the size of Cabinet would add to Ramaphosa’s credibility and show he was not factional, especially if he axed departments headed by people who had supported him at Nasrec.

The EFF leader said he would renew calls for people to occupy vacant land because the ANC had no clear plan and that Ramaphosa was “bluffing about the land”.

“Since you are no longer clear, we have made a call for our people to occupy the unoccupied land … You demonstrated that you were not serious when you appointed Honorable Maite [Nkoana-Mashabane, minister of rural development and land reform] to the land [portfolio]. She knows nothing about the land. And half the time she’s sleeping.”

Malema warned Ramaphosa that he stood to lose his case against dismissed SA Revenue Service head Tom Moyane because the state had “handled it in a clumsy manner”.

“The special investigating unit is corrupt,” Malema said, alleging the unit took bribes from those being investigated.