Cape Town - Controversial EFF leader Julius Malema on Sunday branded DA leader Helen Zille “the number-one racist” in South Africa.
He made the remark during a media briefing in Cape Town while responding to a question on the draft Expropriation Bill.
On the measure - which government has signalled it intends to table in Parliament - Malema said he hoped it would come soon.
“Let's hope it will come. If it comes, we will vote for it. We want to expropriate without compensation. If the ANC puts a motion to expropriate the stolen land without compensation, we will vote with it.”
The latest draft of the contentious Expropriation Bill recognises the jurisdiction of the courts in expropriation matters.
Malema said the EFF had only 25 MPs in the House, but it was “going to bring qualitative debate” into Parliament.
“If the ANC comes, and it wants to expropriate without compensation, we will support it. If the DA comes and wants to remove Zuma, we will support them. We have no problem.”
Malema raised laughter from EFF MPs and journalists at the briefing when he said his party would vote with the DA if they raised a motion to have Zuma voted out of office.
“If the DA says we must vote Zuma out, we are going to do that. And if, after voting Zuma out, they say we must vote Helen Zille in, we refuse.”
He then labelled Zille a racist.
“We can't vote Helen Zille - the most racist, the number-one racist in South Africa - into power. We are not drunk. If Helen Zille takes over this government, she will unashamedly, and without hiding it, take us back to the land of misery and pain.
“That is her ambition. That what she wants to do to black people, that's what she is doing in the DA. (DA parliamentary leader) Musi Maimane is not happy there, like all black people in the DA - they are not happy.”
“If such a racist organisation, which represents backwardness, exploitation of our people, exclusion of the black people from the mainstream economy, that is what DA is. And we can't vote for such a thing into power.”
Zille's spokesperson, Geordin Hill-Lewis, on Sunday dismissed Malema's remarks.
“Everyone can see straight through Juju's nonsense. The facts show that the DA is the most diverse and fastest-growing political party in South Africa.
“In these elections, roughly 760,000 black South African voters voted for the DA.”
The party had grown by 1.1 million votes.
“So whatever Juju says, millions of South Africans know the truth and know that the DA is the only party capable of delivering a better life in South Africa,” he said.
Malema, responding at the briefing to a question on the Nkandla scandal, in which more than R200 million in taxpayers' money was found to have been spent on upgrades to the president's private residence in KwaZulu-Natal, said the ANC had to respect the laws of the country.
“We want the ad hoc committee on Nkandla. We are going to follow up on Nkandla. We are not going to retreat on Nkandla.
“We want a report, and President Zuma must be held accountable for those resources he misused at Nkandla. We stand with the Public Protector (Thuli Madonsela). We say to (her), she must not retreat.
“Parliament must still debate the Nkandla report.”
Malema thanked the ANC “for having allowed a situation where they waited for us (the EFF) to arrive here, so we can be seized with this matter. And we shall attend to it accordingly”. - Sapa