At a memorial service held on Thursday afternoon at Orlando East Communal Hall by the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) for founding Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe, the EFF leader expressed the view that while Mugabe delivered freedom to his people through the “barrel of a gun”, South Africa’s majority are still not in charge of their country.
“You can say whatever nonsense you want to say about them but their [freedom] came through a barrel of the gun. Yours was negotiated and that is why you can’t move from the sunset clauses,” he said, referring to clauses that the ANC accepted from the apartheid government during the Codessa negotiation process that preceded the transition to democracy, which are considered controversial to some.
Malema believes that South Africa, in contrast to Zimbabwe, is “owned by the white man”.
Addressing the issue of the recent xenophobic violence that has plagued SA, the EFF leader expressed the view that South Africans who are lashing out at foreigners cannot truly consider SA their country.
“You are defending the white man’s property,” Malema said.
READ MORE: President Mugabe was ‘a perfect human being’ – Malema
“You have nothing to show, yet you claim this is your country.
“You are telling people to leave your country, you come from an apartment, you come from a flat, you come from a house, you have no paper. When you get back home, after taking out Zimbabweans, the white man will be at the door showing you the way out.
“You call them foreigners, what is the definition of a foreigner? Someone who comes into your country without papers and doesn’t have anything to show. That includes you, you are foreigners because you have nothing to show.
“You are renting. You are marching from the hostels, beating up people and telling them to leave South Africa, yet you do not own your own land. You are paying rent in that hostel, you can be removed yourself,” he said.
Malema also offered a different perspective to the more controversial aspects of Mugabe’s legacy, expressing the view that he has been incorrectly blamed for problems which were actually caused by sanctions imposed by the West.
“Today you say Zimbabwe is in trouble and the trouble of Zimbabwe is caused by Mugabe. It’s not true,” he said.
“Who caused the problems of Syria? Who caused the problem of Libya? Who is causing the problem of Venezuela? Afghanistan and Iraq? Were all those problems caused by Mugabe? Destabilising those countries, was it caused by Mugabe?” the leader of the red berets asked.
“What is common with all these countries, including Zimbabwe, is the fact that imperialism intervened and we know, that when imperialism intervenes, it destabilises countries and those countries never recover from imperialist intervention.
“That is what Zimbabwe is suffering from; when they took their land, when they took their economy, the imperialists imposed sanctions.
“We challenge imperialism, lift those sanctions and let’s see if black people will never run their own economies successfully.
Malema believes that once sanctions are lifted the country will be more prosperous than South Africa.
“They will be owning their mines, they will be owning the retails, they will be owning their banks, they will be owning their land.
“One day, when those sanctions are removed, some of you who are beating up Zimbabweans here, some of you who are hating on Zimbabweans here, are going to work for them,” he predicted.
READ MORE: History will absolve Robert Mugabe – Malema
The EFF leader called for those who are critical of Mugabe to put this aside and bury him in a dignified manner.
“Whether they like it or not, we will honour and protect the legacy of President Mugabe,” he said.
He also used the speech to honour Mugabe for his love of education.
“We cannot remember Mugabe and not stress the love of education; comrades must go to school. Young people must love education – we must always make education fashionable as President Mugabe did,” Malema said.
“Above all Mugabe loved education and his love for education was evidenced by the fact that upon being elected as president of Zimbabwe, he transformed Zimbabwe into the most educated nation in the continent,” he added.
(Compiled by Daniel Friedman)
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