Malema tells students to keep pushing

EFF leader Julius Malema has called on university students not to retreat in their struggle for free education.

Malema, who took a swipe at President Jacob Zuma, said the president was clueless as to how to resolve the problem.

Speaking at an EFF meeting in Durban at the weekend, Malema said Zuma was suppressing the protests through police brutality.

He said Zuma’s failure to address the students’ demands was a sign that “the country did not have a president”.

He said using police to suppress the protests was not a solution.

“You must know as long as this demand has been made, the only way to resolve it is by providing free education. It is not negotiable,” he said.

He said the government should set aside enough money to provide free education by dealing with the current corruption.

“The politicians are stealing it (state money). Let them bring that R30 billion which we are losing to corruption and invest it in education. Then we will have free education.”

He said white capitalists were against free education because they wanted to reserve black people for uneducated, cheap labour.

Malema said he had a discussion with a white man in London last year who said free education would leave the country with a shortage of cheap labour, a problem Britain was experiencing.