Malema lays bare plans for EFF-linked private school

Building on a promise he made at last year’s National People’s Assembly, EFF leader Julius Malema once again touted the virtues of the party’s proposed private school dedicated to educating academically adept, poor and mostly black students.

In line with the party’s virtues, the plan is for the school to provide “world-class and decolonised education” – something that the party promises to provide on a wider scale should they be elected into power.

Sowetan Live reports that the EFF plans to open the school in the next five years and name it after late struggle stalwart, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.

The party has reportedly bought land for the school grounds and will start building soon.

Speaking during his party’s virtual Freedom Day address, Malema announced that black history, culture and languages will be among some of the subjects taught at Winnie Mandela Combined School. He added that the party has notified Madikizela-Mandela’s family of their intention to name the institution after her.

Additionally, Malema assured the masses that the school will be independent of the EFF and will be under the custodianship of its own independent and highly qualified board of trustees.

He lambasted the current schooling curriculum for “consistently making poor black students hate everything about blackness while praising whiteness,” and vowed that the Winnie Mandela Combined School would change this.

“There is no freedom without quality, free, decolonised education. In realising this dream, there is an absolute necessity to free all existing educational institutions from early childhood development to university from racist, capitalist education,” said Malema.

“The sustainability of freedom depends on education – a free, quality and decolonised education system that does not reproduce a racist history of Africa and of black bodies.”

According to Malema, people can “never ask racists to give us such education” and that it is up to the progressive movement to inspire the establishment of such a curriculum.

He promised that the school would cater to poor, talented and dejected black children.

“Its admission policy will be based on prioritisation of poor orphans who lost their parents to HIV and Aids, poor victims of domestic violence and the poor black people in general,” said Malema.

When quizzed about this by Sowetan, Malema and the party’s spokesperson did not say whether the school would be a “blacks only” school but only said that it would prioritise poor children.

Watch the full address below which begins at the 25-minute mark:

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