Mining houses in which magnate Patrice Motsepe, Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa and National Assembly speaker Baleka Mbete have interests will soon be targeted by Economic Freedom Fighters mass action, EFF leader Julius Malema has promised.
Concluding a largely successful EFF national people’s assembly in Bloemfontein yesterday, Malema described the proposed mass action against African Rainbow Minerals (Motsepe), Lonmin (Ramaphosa) and Gold Fields (Mbete) as a protest against the way in which black economic empowerment only benefits a few wealthy, politically connected individuals instead of communities.
ARM, Lonmin and Gold Fields will be challenged to rather empower the communities in which their mines are situated, by for instance hiring locals, building schools and equipping clinics.
“We target these companies not because of the perceived ANC sympathies of the beneficiaries, but because the money should be put to use to empower communities, and these people (Motsepe, Ramaphosa and Mbete) are the faces of the few who have become rich rather than creating community trusts,” Malema explained.
The mining protests, as well as continued invasions of land which the EFF deems to be unoccupied, are the two main protest steps with which the country’s third largest political party aims to kick off the new year.
“We aim to do everything we do inside the law and the Constitution. We are a disciplined organisation,” Malema said.
“But we need to invade unused land to prevent the land issue from leading to the civil strife it has caused in the rest of Africa.
“We know that the ANC will expropriate unused land faster if they know the EFF will occupy it. That does not matter. We don’t want the credit. We just want land for our people.”
During a rousing and well-received concluding speech, he told the more than 2000 delegates that people must stop claiming that the EFF came from the ANC.
“We are not so very proud of that past. We have turned our back on it. We are born again,” he said.
Regarding the 2016 local government elections, he kept the EFF’s options open but said it was clear neither the ANC nor the DA would win power in the three Gauteng metros (Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni) and in Port Elizabeth’s Nelson Mandela Bay metro.
He called on EFF members to be exemplary in their conduct so that their communities would elect them as councilors and mayors.
“After 2016, we must show South Africa that we can govern, and that we can govern well.”
He also kept the door open to possible cooperation with the leftist United Front and with the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa), without committing the EFF to such co-operation.
Regarding the events on Monday night, when a large number of Gauteng delegates left the hall and protested by burning papers and singing songs insulting Malema outside, after claiming that leadership elections were rigged, Malema said it was a heated moment but that it did not constitute a crisis.
He pointed out that almost all the Gauteng delegates returned to the hall.
Juju has SA mine bosses in crosshairs
Concluding a largely successful EFF national people’s assembly in Bloemfontein yesterday, Malema described the proposed mass action against African Rainbow Minerals (Motsepe), Lonmin (Ramaphosa) and Gold Fields (Mbete) as a protest against the way in which black economic empowerment only benefits a few wealthy, politically connected individuals instead of communities.
ARM, Lonmin and Gold Fields will be challenged to rather empower the communities in which their mines are situated, by for instance hiring locals, building schools and equipping clinics.
“We target these companies not because of the perceived ANC sympathies of the beneficiaries, but because the money should be put to use to empower communities, and these people (Motsepe, Ramaphosa and Mbete) are the faces of the few who have become rich rather than creating community trusts,” Malema explained.
The mining protests, as well as continued invasions of land which the EFF deems to be unoccupied, are the two main protest steps with which the country’s third largest political party aims to kick off the new year.
“We aim to do everything we do inside the law and the Constitution. We are a disciplined organisation,” Malema said.
“But we need to invade unused land to prevent the land issue from leading to the civil strife it has caused in the rest of Africa.
“We know that the ANC will expropriate unused land faster if they know the EFF will occupy it. That does not matter. We don’t want the credit. We just want land for our people.”
During a rousing and well-received concluding speech, he told the more than 2000 delegates that people must stop claiming that the EFF came from the ANC.
“We are not so very proud of that past. We have turned our back on it. We are born again,” he said.
Regarding the 2016 local government elections, he kept the EFF’s options open but said it was clear neither the ANC nor the DA would win power in the three Gauteng metros (Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni) and in Port Elizabeth’s Nelson Mandela Bay metro.
He called on EFF members to be exemplary in their conduct so that their communities would elect them as councilors and mayors.
“After 2016, we must show South Africa that we can govern, and that we can govern well.”
He also kept the door open to possible cooperation with the leftist United Front and with the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa), without committing the EFF to such co-operation.
Regarding the events on Monday night, when a large number of Gauteng delegates left the hall and protested by burning papers and singing songs insulting Malema outside, after claiming that leadership elections were rigged, Malema said it was a heated moment but that it did not constitute a crisis.
He pointed out that almost all the Gauteng delegates returned to the hall.
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