Johannesburg - Julius Malema took his war talk to Mpumalanga on Monday – lashing the ANC for allegedly breaking its service delivery promises.
Nelson Mandela’s death, he told a crowd of 5 000, had heralded the end of the party.
“The ANC died with Mandela because he was the true leader of the ANC. This one is not the ANC. We call it ‘ZANC – Zuma African National Criminals’. It’s not the ANC that liberated us from apartheid,” Malema said to rapturous applause.
Dozens of elderly men and women took shelter from the scorching sun under a marquee as a group of Economic Freedom Fighters supporters chanted around the stadium parading a mock coffin of the ANC with a picture of President Jacob Zuma next to a cross displayed upon it.
Malema vented his spleen on the delayed construction of a railway system which Zuma promised during his 2011 State of the Nation address and which would have replaced the notorious Moloto Road corridor with a safe rail link to Gauteng.
“We spoke about this killer road (while) speaking about the suffering of the people here. Here is the road killing people day in and day out, but nothing is being done,” Malema said.
Malema told the crowd that if the EFF came to power, it would expand the road and build the railway line, linking Limpopo, Gauteng and Mpumalanga through the Moloto corridor. “We will introduce a speed train to transport you to Pretoria in less than 30 minutes,” he pledged.
Malema also lashed out at “greedy boers” and mine bosses opposed to his policy of nationalisation. Proper reconciliation and freedom, he said, meant the restoration of land to its rightful owners.
“We won’t chase them (the whites), but we are saying let’s share. We don’t want greedy people. Why must one family of Van Tonders have 10 000 hectares while they only use 3 000 hectares?” he asked.
He said farmers should repay the rightful owners of land by teaching them “how to farm with sophisticated machinery”. “Their rent is to teach people to farm productively. Greediness will not help us,” he said, also warning “greedy” blacks, singling out Cyril Ramaphosa and Patrice Motsepe.
He also spoke about his expulsion from the ANC, saying it had been a blessing in disguise. “We want to thank the ANC for expelling Julius Malema. Without that, we would not have known the true revolution. The ANC only talks about positions… but we speak of true messages. We thank them for expelling us. It was a nice thing.”
He singled out Derek Hanekom, who presided over the disciplinary committee that expelled him. “The people who expelled me are the people who had a problem with Peter Mokaba. Till today, I still suffer because of my association with Peter Mokaba, but the people are saying continue with the legacy of Peter Mokaba.”
The Star