‘I’m sorry I helped Zuma to the top’

The president is stealing my ideas, says Malema

JULIUS Malema has apologised for helping President Jacob Zuma come to power. The former youth league leader, expelled from the ANC, says he has no regrets except one.

“The only thing I regret is campaigning for Zuma. We caused the country a serious pain – we apologise dearly.

“The youth league is the one that caused our people this pain and it must be in the forefront of correcting that pain,” Malema said. “It’s a mistake not worth repeating.”

Malema was speaking at his home yesterday as delegates at the ANC’s policy conference debated whether or not to adopt the idea of a second transition.

Spelt out in the ANC’s strategy and tactics discussion document, it’s based on the notion that the first years of democracy were about political freedom, but that the next decades must be about radical change to achieve economic freedom.

The ANC will officially pronounce later today on whether the second transition will be adopted as policy. Word yesterday however was that, while there was agreement on the need for social and economic change to deal with poverty, unemployment and inequality, the notion of a second transition wasn’t flying.

It might yet be rescued in today’s plenary session, however.

Malema accused Zuma of pinching the youth league’s ideas in his call for economic change and giving it new clothes as a “second transition”. The youth league has been campaigning for “economic freedom in our lifetime”.

Malema, who watched Tuesday’s opening of the policy conference on television at home, said when Zuma spoke about economic freedom “it was like he’s reading the youth league document”.

“Zuma spoke about economic freedom because the only way to remain relevant is to address the economic challenges confronting our people, a matter he has been denying,” Malema claimed.

“We need change, President Zuma must not come back, we made a terrible mistake by making President Zuma a president, but (it was) because we wanted somebody courageous enough to contest (Thabo) Mbeki.”

Malema said the issues raised by Zuma during his opening speech at the conference had first been aired by the league.

“The bad thing is that he’s not acknowledging these views were raised by the ANC Youth League.

“What I raised at that time is at the top of their agenda.”

He said it was as if he had been expelled in order to allow Zuma “to shine on the issues we have raised”.

“All these issues they are talking about, they have problem(s) with us raising them.

“We raised the issue about white males controlling the economy, but we were called racist. Today he is repeating it.

“We also said BEE has benefited only a few and it’s only nationalisation that can help us to redistribute the wealth,” Malema said.

Zuma on Tuesday said compromises struck during the negotiated settlement that ended apartheid had been “absolutely necessary” for stability.

But one of the outcomes was that the economy remained largely in the hands of white men. Zuma said this had to change.

Malema does not disagree on this point, but says the second transition isn’t the way to go.

“We don’t need any second transition of that sort. Look, we’ve got the Freedom Charter and the national democratic revolution, which seeks to attain economic power.” Malema said it wasn’t possible to say that political freedom had been won, and that it was now time to move on to achieving social and economic freedom, because “they go together”.

“This revolution was never cut into pieces,” he said.

“When we speak of changing property relations and ownership in South Africa and redistributing wealth to benefit all the people… we are addressing an economic issue but in doing so we are addressing a political issue.

“You can’t separate them,” he said.