Private sector must fight corruption – Malema
EFF leader Julius Malema gave delegates to the SA Property Owners Association conference in Cape Town a tongue-lashing, telling them they were the “beneficiaries of a crime against humanity”.
Malema started his address by telling delegates that South Africa had been founded on “a crime against humanity”, referring to colonialism and the apartheid regime.
“You all feel under threat… with the current state of things, to survive you all do not have a choice but to bribe officials who increasingly do things like gangsters. We are aware that some of the corruption happens because of the participation by the private sector,” he said yesterday.
“Many of you do not even contribute when we are engaged in this fight against corruption… because you are scared that you will be exposed.”
Malema told property owners to help fund ongoing litigation aimed at fighting corruption: “If the private sector is genuinely against corruption, it must play its own part and put (up) its money so that we defeat this corruption... we call upon you to stand up and say ‘enough is enough, not in our name’. We will not allow South Africa to collapse under our watch... because we have a lot to lose.”
The EFF and other opposition parties were fighting a “well-oiled machine of corruption”, he added.
“You do not make a contribution to the EFF or other parties involved in litigation against corruption, yet you claim to be fighting corruption. You fight corruption on Twitter, Facebook and air-conditioned offices… even when we call you to the picket lines you refuse to come, yet you are the ones who are going to lose a lot when the state collapses.”
He said investors should empower communities by investing in commercial properties, and that the owners should help the landless in the country, the majority of whom are black and poor.
“I am talking about many of you who own pieces of land, which you do not use for anything, yet you cannot make the land available for the landless masses of our people. There is no ignoring the landless as you have all done since 1994,” Malema added.
He said the emergence of shopping malls in townships had eradicated black-owned small businesses, which had to close in the face of competition from multinational retailers. Malema urged investors to consider local, small-scale retailers when they build malls, and not only pay attention to big retailers.