Speech by EFF leader Julius Malema in the debate on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address, Monday, 19 February 2018

Mr J S MALEMA: Hon Speaker, Chairperson of the NCOP, officials of the government in waiting, the EFF ... [Interjections.] ... my president, Mr President ...

Tshivenda:

Muphuresidennde vha shango lothe la Afrika Tshipembe, ndaa.

English:

We thank the judiciary, we thank the South African media, we thank the NGOs, the opposition parties and the people of South Africa for defeating the monster that was created by the ruling party. We say that the unity displayed during the difficult times we have gone through over the past nine years once more demonstrates that, when people are united, not even the powerful can defeat them.

We once more say to the people of South Africa: You must continue to be vigilant because the ANC is still in power. Anything is possible.

We ask the people of Zimbabwe, the Tsvangirai family, the friends of Morgan Tsvangirai and his colleagues in the MDC to please receive our revolutionary condolences. We may not have agreed with the politics of Morgan Tsvangirai, but we fully admit that, indeed, he won the elections, and the regime did not allow him to become the leader of the people of Zimbabwe. We want to say to Morgan Tsvangirai: That will never happen in South Africa. We will not allow the nonsensical things like that which happened to you in Zimbabwe, to happen here.

We are saying to the people of South Africa, we must learn from the mistakes of Zimbabwe and, in honour of Morgan Tsvangirai, not allow those who are in power, and who want to stay in power, to stay in power when the will of the people indicates otherwise.

Mr President, I want to take this opportunity to congratulate you because, when they elected you in this illegitimate Parliament, I was not here. But the majority of this Parliament has agreed that they must proceed with business as usual.

I want to state very clearly on behalf of the EFF that we are willing to give you a chance as the President of the Republic, as Head of State and government. We only give you a chance because you have not been personally found guilty of being a constitutional delinquent.

Because we do not entertain delinquents. We deal with delinquents decisively like we did before. It is very easy for a country to degenerate if you allow individuals to become constitutional delinquents.

Mr President, we want to say to you that you are not a king; you are a leader of the people. And therefore you must never expect to receive the treatment of a king. You must be a leader. You must welcome those who criticise you and always defend the right of those who disagree with you, to disagree with you.

You must not abuse your power because you think you are powerful like that.

Comrade President, we listened to you when you were speaking because it was the right thing to do. We gave you a chance to explain your plans. But the reality is that you do not have any plan. That’s why you came here and told us of job summits because you are still going to look for plans out of the job summits. That’s why you came here and told us about the issues of social sector summit because there is no plan. You came here and told us about an investment conference because there is no plan. You told us about a youth summit because you have no clear plan on how you are going resolve the thorny issue of youth unemployment.

Mr President, you have no plan to deal with the collection of tax because SARS has collapsed. That’s why you called for a commission of enquiry into tax affairs.

Mr President, we are saying to you, you are doing all of this because you know you will be a President for 12 months. You are effectively saying to South Africa, there is nothing I can do in the next 12 months, because I will be looking for plans from commissions, and after 12 months I will be gone. Because you will indeed be gone after 12 months! [Laughter.] [Applause.]

Mr President, you mentioned expropriation of land without compensation. And we all agreed. Well, actually, that statement got you the loudest applause.

I heard the Leader of the Opposition saying something else. Before I come to you I want to tell him — the Leader of the Opposition — that his stay in the metros is going to depend on his attitude toward the expropriation of land without compensation. [Interjections.] [Applause.] I want to warn him about that, for that is a fundamental issue which is going to make us fight with him. Because anyone opposed to expropriation of land without compensation is the enemy of our people and such a person will be dealt with. [Interjections.]

Mr President, expropriation of land without compensation as mentioned by you did not capture the headlines because they know you are bluffing. They know you are not serious about it. Anybody who is worried about investment in South Africa would have been worried when you mentioned expropriation of land without compensation, but you told them, hayi, I’m just passing time. Don’t worry; I’m just silencing my opponents in the ANC.

This cannot be an issue to bluff about. This cannot be an issue to pass time with. It is an emotive issue, and you only mention it if you mean it. It’s not a matter that you can go around joking about. There are no conditions attached to expropriation of land without compensation because when they took our land, they never attached any conditions; they just killed our people. [Applause.]

I don’t understand, Mr President, why would you have Faith Muthambi as a Minister but not have Thoko Didiza as a Minister? What justification is there for that? What normal person in power makes Faith Muthambi a Minister and leaves out a person like Thoko Didiza?

You removed the Eskom people because of allegations. You didn’t waste time. But you waste time to remove your own colleagues here.

The reason you jumped that line of saying you are going to arrest people, is because when you spoke about corruption and arresting corrupt people, we kept on saying “Ace”, and you wanted to save Ace’s face by jumping that line. Why? Because you are continuing to protect your own.

Don’t protect those who are implicated in corruption. All of them who are going to be frequenting the state capture enquiry must be released so that they can have time to prepare for the enquiry! Thank you very much.

Source: Unrevised transcript, Hansard