Johannesburg - The Economic Freedom Front’s march against financial institutions is about to kick off as supporters filled Mary Fitzgerald Square .
The march was scheduled to kick off at 10 but an hour later EFF spokesman Mbuyiseni Ndlozi took to the stage and led the crowd in song.
Ndlozi said the Reserve Bank must be nationalised.
He has warned against those that will attempt to infiltrate the march and disrupt it.
"Nobody is going to collapse us. We will march with military discipline," he said.
Supporters have been bussed in from all around the country.
The EFF say they are expecting around 5 000 people to participate in the march that will see them delivering memorandums to the Reserve Bank, Chamber of Mines and the JSE.
EFF leader Julius Malema is expected to arrive shortly to lead the Economic Freedom march.
Malema told talk station 702 on Tuesday morning that they wanted to see the formation of free, quality education and the creation of jobs through economic transformation.
“We are protesting the exploitation of the public… the majority of people who were systematically excluded by the apartheid regime are still being excluded today.
“The Chamber of Mines and mining companies continue to protect the white monopoly at the expense of workers who are exploited and paid peanuts,” he told talk station 702.
He said his party had ensured that it learnt from what was happening globally, especially in places like Greece.
“We do not promise things that are going to lead the economy of South Africa into a disaster.
“We are a democratic organisation that engages with private sectors and the public and we want to bring the best of the best policies which will grow this economy and create jobs for everybody and also distribute the wealth of South Africa to all of South Africa,” he said.
When asked about the EFF’s policy on nationalisation, Malema said: “Just because it didn’t work in Greece… doesn’t mean it will not work in South Africa.
“South Africa is not Greece… we can learn from what the Greeks had to go through.”
He said the EFF was proposing a different kind of model for nationalisation.
“It’s nationalisation of profitable minerals and that type of nationalisation will not lead to a complete exclusion of the private sector.
“It will just guarantee majority control and ownership of the economy by the state,” Malema said.
Joburg metro police spokesman Superintendent Wayne Minnaar said motorists around Joburg would be affected as “the march will go north towards Rissik Street, then into Joubert Street and Victoria Street… Oxford Road, Rivonia Road and West into Maude street”.
IOL MOJO and The Star