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BLF wonders why Malema ‘forgot to occupy Eskom’ in January
The party, however, said they were not surprised since other occupation threats by the EFF have also resulted in 'dololo'.
Julius Malema with the party’s new top six officials at their elective conference at Nasrec. Picture: EFF/Twitter
In a statement on Sunday, Black First Land First (BLF) took aim at one of its favourite targets, the EFF and leader Julius Malema, over his comments last year about Eskom.
At the party’s December elective conference at Nasrec, Malema vowed that “next year before the end of January we shall occupy the premises of Eskom to demand a reliable supply of electricity to our people”.
Load shedding was back in full force during most of January, though the red berets did not occupy the power utility.
The BLF’s deputy president, Zanela Lwana, noted that the month had come and gone without action from the EFF.
“Black First Land First notes that Julius Malema, who had promised to occupy Eskom, has characteristically forgotten to do so.”
She said they ordinarily wouldn’t “bother to comment on Mr Malema’s now well-known penchant for inconsistency” since “his political method is now established as consistency in inconsistency”.
Lwana accused Malema of providing a “quixotic answer to a problem created deliberately by white monopoly capital (WMC)” since his occupation of Eskom would allegedly have precipitated a crisis to justify privatisation, which the EFF has claimed to be opposed to.
“Here we are just reminding everyone that Malema doesn’t mean what he says. This endangers the future. The black youth are under the wrong impression that Malema is interested in revolutionary change. It’s our revolutionary duty to warn and educate the youth about the dangers of flip flopping.
“It’s not the first time that Malema had strategically forgotten to fulfil a promise. He totally forgot to occupy ABSA after organising a 50,000 strong march to the JSE in 2015. While addressing the Southern African-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Johannesburg in 2015, he announced that EFF would command 3,000 people to occupy Absa branches if the bank didn’t indicate how it would fight inequalities in the country; and that a task team had been established to action the bank occupations the next year (2016).”
She quoted Malema as saying at the time: “[We will] occupy Absa, each and every branch of Absa, until we are given a practical programme of action on how the bank is going to intervene to resolve the inequalities in society.”
However, she then repeated the long-held view that Malema had then “jetted off to London and held secret meetings with representatives of British imperialism, like Lord Robin Renwick, and forgot about the ABSA occupation”.
“Instead of occupying ABSA, Malema carried out the instructions he was given by his handlers to hound President Jacob Zuma and the Guptas.”
The EFF, including Malema, have consistently rejected these allegations and described their meeting with Renwick as a publicly acknowledged encounter with no hidden motives.
Lwana further accused Malema of uttering a hollow threat “to occupy the illegally obtained international terminal Fireblade Aviation which is inside the OR Tambo International Airport and privately owned by the Oppenheimers”.
“Yet again, dololo occupation of Fireblade,” she added sarcastically.
“We remind all that Malema has never ever taken any direct action against WMC. When it’s time to fight WMC, he is hit by amnesia. So we aren’t surprised that he has forgotten yet again. We also remember the Independent Power Producers (IPPs) situation where meetings were held with Patrice Motsepe and Malema’s amnesia was guaranteed. Malema oa lebala.”
(Compiled by Charles Cilliers)
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