Cape Town - EFF leader Julius Malema has said that doing well in the Cape Town metro was important as it was the only South African city which represented and “remained a colony”.
The commander-in-chief was speaking at the party’s first rally in Gugulethu on Sunday since launching its manifesto two weeks ago for the local government elections.
The EFF’s red beret brigade will spend the next two days visiting residents in Philippi, Khayelitsha, Du Noon and Stellenbosch.
While not making any promises, Malema said he would want to improve on the EFF’s performance in the 2014 general elections when it received only 2.7 percent of the votes in the metro.
The DA, in power since 2006, is targeting 60 percent of the votes in the City in the August 3 elections.
“It is not transformed. It is still in the hands of the white minority. Whites rule here in Cape Town, we want to transform this place, but we can’t transform this place if we are not part of the municipality,” said Malema.
More than 2 000 supporters and curious residents filled the township’s sports complex and waited more than two hours for his arrival.
Without a prepared speech or notes, Malema claimed that “white monopoly capital” was centred in Cape Town and Stellenbosch, and that “the whole of South Africa” was controlled from the Boland town.
“If we can’t win over Cape Town, or ultimately the Western Cape, we must forget about black people’s land being returned, and black people reclaiming the economy of South Africa,” said Malema.
His almost 90-minute speech was mostly in English, interspersed with smatterings of isiXhosa, saying that he wants to convey “a clear message” for voters.
“The struggle for economic emancipation must begin, and must be entrenched here in the Western Cape because that’s where you can touch oppression, that’s where you can see oppression, that’s where you can smell oppression (sic).”
Malema said: “There is too much land in the Western Cape, the problem is that it is owned by foreign people.
“Here in the Western Cape, land is extremely expensive, even the municipality cannot afford to buy it back.
“When we take over the province, we will expropriate it without compensation and give it to the people.
“You are nothing without the land.
“They don’t undermine you because you are uneducated or do not have money, they undermine you because you have no property.
“Our people don’t invade land because they are excited, but because they want a piece of land for their children. This winter you will see a lot of invasions from people seeking a little comfort.
“Mandela did not go to prison so that you can vote, that was a by-the-way. He went to prison so that you can have land.
“Go around telling them [rich white people] you want your land back, don’t be apologetic.
“When you have land, you will work and produce food and feed yourself and if there is some left over, you will sell it to outside countries.”
Malema described Cape Town as “two nations in one city”; one affluent, and the other poor. About land invasions by backyard shackdwellers, Malema said people occupied land “because they want a place to call home”.
“It’s not out of excitement that they go and occupy land. They are looking for a piece of land so that they can have a place called home, you (mayor Patricia de Lille) go and evict them. And in most cases they do that during winter,” said Malema.
He said the problem with government is that they invest money in unimportant things like bicycle lanes and the Gautrain instead of improving lives of the poor.
“There is a lot of money in Camps Bay; the rich people must pay for water and electricity of poor people,” he said.
“The rich must be ashamed of being rich, if you are truly ashamed then pay an extra R200 to take care of the poor.
“Let those who benefited from apartheid contribute to the well-being of the poor, they are always saying sorry, well sorry is no longer enough.”
He also attacked the country’s political culture, in which poor supporters demanded party T-shirts, saying the EFF would not be dishing out T-shirts as it would not make any material difference for the poor.
“When you go home tonight, you’ll still be hungry.”
Instead of voting for the ANC based on nostalgia for past Struggle heroes, Malema called on voters to punish President Jacob Zuma, saying he did not respect laws, even when the Constitutional Court ruled against him.
Malema said: “All of us have been voting emotionally, voting for Tata Madiba, well, Mandela is no more.
“You are voting for Zuma, don’t lie to yourself, there is no Mandela who looks like that, just look at his head.
“Mandela never gave the children of his friends children.
“We gave him a chance and should have known then already he was a disaster.”
Malema also ripped into Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane saying he is just a puppet.
“[Helen] Zille is the real leader; Maimane is just there to draw a salary.
“He must stop the white people from controlling him.”
Cape Times and Daily Voice