Racism and white privilege seeking to keep ‘our people’ landless – Malema

Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema said in parliament on Tuesday that racism and “white privilege” are opposed to amending section 25 of the Constitution to allow for land expropriation without compensation.

Malema was speaking in parliament on Tuesday where the National Assembly is considering the report of the joint Constitutional Review Committee.

The sitting comes after the committee last month adopted its report on amending Section 25 of the Constitution to allow for land expropriation without compensation.

The committee’s adoption of its report followed months of public hearings and hundreds of thousands of submissions on the emotive issue.

Malema said white South Africans protected one another when their interests and privileges were threatened hence they spoke out in one voice against amending the Constitution.

“There is one thing that all of you have to acknowledge – that the white people who came, all of them, poor or rich, landless white people, all of them came in unison and opposed the expropriation of land without compensation,” Malema said.

“And they don’t care whether the other one is in the wrong or not.”

Malema said the show of solidarity by white South Africans who are against land expropriation without compensation was a result of racism and privilege “which seeks to perpetuate landlessness among those who were conquered by criminals who came into our country and took our land”.

Malema said Africans, particularly black people, held differing views on the matter because they never intended to isolate anyone but “come from a background that seeks to win a debate through an honest engagement”.

“But here you’ve got a group of people, not only during consultations, a group of people who ninety percent of them vote for the same party.”

Malema said this was an example of white privilege seeking to defend itself and “perpetuate landlessness among our people”.

“Therefore, the black unity, in particular African unity, is very important when it comes to this issue.”

The debate continues in parliament, watch it here:

Malema said the public hearings on amending the constitution had been fair because the committees that toured the country hosting them had heard differing views on the matter.

He said the intention had never been to run a referendum on amending the Constitution.

Doing so, holding a referendum, Malema explained, would have resulted in the majority of the electorate voting for amending the Constitution because parties that supported land expropriation without compensation in the assembly constituted more than two-thirds majority.

#Malema echoes DA MP Maile's sentiment that the CRC report was not a referendum and suggests that had it been a referendum,those against EWC would have been outnumbered. The CRC report says 65% of thhe written submissions were against changing the constitution.

— Simnikiwe H (@onlynikki89) December 4, 2018

Malema commended the chairpersons of both committees that held public hearings throughout the country for their patience and conducting a dignified and peaceful process of public consultations.

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