Land taken through genocide – Malema
LAND in South Africa was taken through genocide and will be returned, EFF leader Julius Malema told party supporters yesterday in the Standard Bank Arena in Johannesburg.
“It didn’t end there [with genocide]. They passed law after law‚ taking land from our people. Yet investors never left the country.
“When they passed the Land Act of 1913‚ investors never left the country. Investors came into the country,” he said.
The expropriation of land without compensation was one of the topics Malema spoke about at the launch of the EFF’s election registration campaign yesterday.
“We want to heal the pain of the past. How to heal the pain of the past? We want to give land to our people.
“It is going to happen. It will happen in our lifetime. Whether they like it or not‚ the land will be returned in the hands of our people‚” Malema said.
He referred to those threatening to retaliate with civil war to defend their land as “non-thinkers”.
“We don’t want civil war here‚” Malema said.
“Now is the time of the thinkers. Let us talk about how do we take into the hands of the people through dialogue‚ through robust debate‚ without any threats of civil war.”
Malema wants to remove Athol Trollip as mayor of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro on April 6 “because he is white”.
“Why not [Herman] Mashaba? Why not Solly [Msimanga] and all of that? Because the mayor of [the] DA in PE is a white man. Not because Mashaba and Solly will not be touched.
“They will be touched‚ don’t worry‚ but we are starting with this whiteness.”
Malema said the party did not care about white feelings.
“Trollip deserves nothing from us. We don’t hate white people‚ we just love black people.”
A public spat erupted between the EFF and the DA because of their different stances on expropriation of land without compensation.
The issue was debated in the National Assembly after the ANC decided to expropriate land without compensation at its congress in December.
President Cyril Ramaphosa announced in his maiden state of the nation address on February 16 that the government would speed up its land redistribution programme.
An EFF-sponsored motion to amend section 25 of the constitution‚ which deals with property‚ was passed by a majority vote
We don’t hate white people, we just love black people
last week.
However‚ because of the DA’s refusal to support the motion‚ the EFF said it would punish the party by helping to remove Trollip.
Malema said the EFF was not friends with the DA‚ which he described as a “typical bully”.
“When we implement that decision [to remove Trollip] it is not because we trust the ANC. We don’t trust the ANC‚ because the ANC and the DA are the same. The one is racist‚ the other one is corrupt.”