SA free but not independent, says Julius Malema

EFF leader Julius Malema lamented on Monday that as South Africa celebrated Freedom Day it must be clear that the country was not yet independent.

Malema was speaking in an online address.

He said as much as there were victories to celebrate about this day marking the democratic breakthrough in 1994, there were plenty shortcomings that should be acknowledged.

SA had achieved political freedom, while economic freedom remained only a dream.

“As revolutionaries it is important that we remember this day as an important transition to political freedom, not one where we achieved independence,” said Malema.

“It is nations such as Burkina Faso, where Thomas Sankara ceased the land and built a productive industrial and agricultural economy and refused to pay economic debt where independence was achieved.

“It was in Ghana, where Kwame Nkrumah built an economy with Africans at the centre, championing calls for continental unity for independent Africa, where independence was achieved.

“It was in the economically-sabotaged Zimbabwe, where Robert Mugabe enforced the Lancaster Agreement, after being betrayed by Britain, where independence was achieved,” he went on. 

“In South Africa, the 27th of April is a day when we achieved political freedom but not economic freedom and independence. Many sacrifices and compromises were made which saw the economy remain in the hands of the oppressor.”

Malema blamed the ANC for failing to deliver complete independence to South Africans.

The ANC, he said, was instead engaged in “greed and corruption” and reversing the minimal gains of the 1994 breakthrough.

“The liberation movement has become allies with those who make our people to be servants in our own land,” he said.

“The ANC continues to fulfil its mandate as the mediator between African people and white minority rule, using political power to protect the interests of imperialism.

“It is a liberation movement that has fallen to greed, selfishness and corruption. A liberation movement that has failed to use political power to industrialise our economy and build independent capacity in all sectors and create a developmental state.”

The firebrand EFF leader also slammed the government's decision to approach the IMF and World Bank for loans to add to funds in the fight against Covid-19, saying this would compromise the little independence SA had.

Malema advised that instead of approaching the IMF, the country should look at alternatives such as unclaimed insurance funds and injections from the SA Reserve Bank.