Transcript of speech by Economic Freedom Fighters leader, Julius Malema MP, to the debate on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address, Parliament 16 February 2021 

Mr J S MALEMA: Thank you very much, hon Chairperson. Mr President ...

Sepedi: 14h49

Bagologolo ba rile, “Dinaka tša go rwešwa ga di gomarele hlogo.”

English: 14h50

You are a perfect manifestation of this African idiom. You are incompetent, incapacitated and the most unreliable human being. Perhaps it is something that you learnt when you worked as a legal officer for the Oppenheimers. Here you are pretending that you believe in South Africa’s case; yet it is a lie.

When you prematurely ascended to power in 2018, many people, including the leadership and membership of the EFF, hoped that you would bring some degree of stability. It is now three years since you took office and we can all say that you have not achieved anything that is worth mentioning. We have successfully displaced the Gupta criminal syndicate which had a lot of power under President Zuma.

However, it is now evident that the Guptas have been replaced by the very powerful white capitalist capture of the Ruperts, Oppenheimers, Stephen Koseff, the Menells and all other white people who played a central role in buying the conference of the ruling party in 2017. We want to state categorically that any leader of our country that owes loyalty to colonial settlers and white state capturers is defining himself as an enemy of the people. We will isolate and ultimately defeat all puppets of the white capitalist establishment.

Despite the public relations stance and showmanship you demonstrated during the state of the nation address on 11 February 2021, there is honestly nothing to celebrate under your leadership. The reality is that the conditions of our people are getting worse, and whilst corona has worsened them it is still not to blame for your general incompetence. The only thing that your administration is competent at is the protection and benefits of the white capitalist establishment. This is evidently pay back for the fact that white people under apartheid even protected and promoted you, Mr Cyril Ramaphosa.

Hon Chairperson, you will recall that when young black people were being exiled and killed in the 70s, particularly after the June 16 uprising, Mr Cyril Ramaphosa was already serving on the boards of white companies, particularly the Urban Foundation belonging to the Oppenheimers and the Ruperts. It is no surprise that when he announced the first lockdown, he announced fake commitments of billions in donations from the Ruperts and Oppenheimers, which never reached our people.

When he was elected as President in 2018, the unemployment rate in South Africa was 26,1% and more than 8,8 million people, mainly black youth willing and ready to work, were unemployed. Today, the unemployment rate has increased to 30,1% and the number of unemployed people has increased to well over 10 million. Under his leadership, more than two million people with jobs when he took office no longer have jobs. This means, Mr President, that in the same way you claim victories for an increase in jobs, you must also take full responsibility when more than two million breadwinners lose their jobs.

Despite empty promises at investment summits, the economy under Mr Ramaphosa is shrinking. South Africa was already in a recession for three quarters before the outbreak of the coronavirus. The last time South Africa experienced positive quarterly economic growth was in the second quarter of 2019. We experienced a recession well before the COVID-19 pandemic and this is made worse by the fact that government’s contribution to the GDP continues to decline due to the patently foolish and unscientific reduction of the Budget.

We warned that, despite the misleading talk by the Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition Ebrahim Patel, South Africa’s industrial capacity is not growing. Instead, it continues to shrink as there is no coherent and cogent industrial policy for industrial expansion or localisation because of Mr Ramaphosa’s incompetence. You are incompetent ...

Sepedi: 14h53

O a palelwa, mokgalabje.

English: 15h00

You must accept ...

Sepedi: 15:01

... gore o nto ya pala.

English: 15:08

When we were confronted with the COVID-19 pandemic, we could not even manufacture the most basic of things like masks and sanitisers. South Africa has spent more than 30 billion purchasing personal protective equipment, PPEs, and this has benefited foreign companies. Even when local producers tried to produce PPEs locally, your government overlooked them and empowered foreign companies. In addition, your preference for white people is deeply hurtful and the most dangerous of all your traits. It is demonstrated by almost all strategic positions in state-owned companies being handed over to white people and mostly males who, despite their incompetence and corruption, are protected by the capitalist media establishment.

Mr President, your energy plan is a disaster and will not bring about the necessary energy stability needed to develop South Africa’s economy. Despite your misleading commitments that Eskom will not be privatised, what you said here during the state of the nation address is essentially the gradual privatisation of energy generation, and we all know that the white capitalist establishment will again be the biggest beneficiary whilst thousands of workers will lose their jobs. Eskom’s future lies in the establishment of its own renewable energy division instead of its dependence on greedy independent power producers. The current model has failed dismally and has worsened Eskom’s financial problems.

We were told that more than 1,2 trillion in investment was marked over a period of five years, and so far the so-called raised investments are imaginary and only exist in your not so big head.

In 2018, Mr Ramaphosa committed to finalising the allocation of spectrum to reduce barriers to entry, promote competition and reduce data costs. The same commitment was repeated in February and June of 2019 and in February 2020. This process has been mismanaged so much that any effort to license the spectrum will be riddled with corruption, incompetence and not lead to the reduction of data costs.

Under your watch, Mr President, corruption is on the rise. For instance, only 26% of national and provincial departments and state-owned entities, SOEs, managed to produce quality financial statements. According to the Auditor-General, AG, the financial health of government continues to be alarming. Irregular, wasteful and fruitless expenditure continues to increase. The COVID-19 corruption of PPEs is also evidence that you cannot deal with corruption.

According to the AG’s COVID-19 special report, there is widespread corruption, fraud and abuse of power in your government, sponsored and monitored by people, including your Cabinet members. In fact, your own Ministers refuse to answer important questions from Parliament. The key example is this one who just spoke before me who pretends to know everything about this pandemic yet he knows nothing. He refused to answer questions, using nondisclosure agreements signed with pharmaceuticals.

We have written to the Speaker to demand that all details, including prices, quantities, contracted middle men and middle women in the procurement of vaccines, must be disclosed to Parliament and the people of South Africa. Everyone who stands to personally benefit from the vaccine roll-out must face public scrutiny to avoid the repeat of corruption in the roll out of PPEs.

The truth, however, is that all of this will not happen because of your incompetence, Mr Ramaphosa.

Sepedi:

O a palelwa. O no ba nto ya pala. Ga o tsebe selo; o rata dilo. O dumetše go ba Mopresidente o tseba gore ga o na le bokgoni bja go ba moemedi wa maemo a godimo.

English:

We have had to lodge complaints with the Public Protector about shenanigans that occurred in the Financial Sector Conduct Authority where commissioners have squandered millions of members’ pension funds. They have used these funds to enrich themselves, their own law firms and their family members. The surpluses and unclaimed pensions should be used to procure vaccines. You could unwind the pension fund, reverse the unjustifiable legal and curator fees and utilise the remaining surpluses for the benefit of workers and all people.

The reality is that in any event, these funds belong to the workers, but again, because of your incompetence, you will not use your regulatory power to save the lives of workers from the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. This inability to act is what gives way to corruption and the squandering of people’s resources by greedy officials and capitalists.

Amidst all this, under you Mr Ramaphosa, white companies are the biggest beneficiaries of state contracts. Black companies are all marginalised under the racist suspicion that they are all corrupt simply because they are black.

Sepedi:

E sa le o eba Mopresidente ...

English:

... all the people, including ...

Sepedi:

... bao ba go thekgago ...

English:

... are being pushed out. All those people who were successful in the previous administrations ...

Sepedi:

... bao e lego borakgwebo ba bathobaso, kamoka ga bona makgowa a a ba koba, le bao ba bego ba na le diBEE - Maatlafatšo ya Bathobaso ekonoming ...

English:

... are now being taken out of those companies because they have gained a white arrogance under your leadership and they have undermined all black people.

Sepedi:

Se se nkgahlago kudu - se ntshegišago, ebile se ntsikiditla le bošego ke gore bathobaso bao ba go filego tšhelete le bona ...

English:

... they are at the receiving end.

Sepedi:

Ka gore makgowa a a ba ntšha dikgwebong, ka ge ba se sa ba hloka, ba swere komangkanna ka ...

English:

... the form of a President. Despite undisputed evidence that there was massive corruption in the purchase of PPEs, there is not a single public official who has been arrested and convicted by the National Director of Public Prosecutions, NDPP, whom we are told is the most competent of all. It is evident now that the only thing the current NDPP was appointed for was to withdraw criminal charges against the rogue unit led by Jamnadas who continues to control government and the media to tell lies about the President’s opponents and project him as a demigod.

Mr President, we cannot continue to bury our heads in the sand against growing, and now believable, allegations that some prominent members of the judiciary are on the payroll of the white capitalist establishment. We cannot ignore the allegations that some of the judges have received bribes through the State Security Agency’s, SSA’s, project justice as well as from CR17 donations which, by all standards and measures, amounted to massive corruption, money laundering and racketeering. The judiciary must know that they are not above the Constitution.

Sepedi:

O ka no ba moahlodi, efela ga o Modimo. Kamoka ga bona ga se ba ka ba lwela naga ye. Ba ile sekolong gore ba be baahlodi.

English:

There is nothing so special that gives them powers to think they can amend this Constitution and take away people’s rights. Worse they contradicted themselves in their own judgements because they think they are untouchable. They must know that if they continue to think that they are the law but not interpreters of the law then the people will rise against those few judges who have made themselves the law and are conspiring with politicians to deal with the opponents of the current establishment.

There is an uninterrupted continuity of state capture which looks like all along you have been learning from the best. At the rate that these allegations are going we will have to establish another commission of inquiry to investigate massive corruption under your leadership and we will have to conduct a ... [Inaudible.] ... scrutiny of our judiciary. Judges can be investigated and they need to know that they must make the law and they shouldn’t think that they are above the law.

Mr President, in your public relations efforts you continue to mention that you have made a fiscal intervention of 500 billion to fight the corona pandemic and its consequences, and that is plainly not a reflection of reality. We warned earlier on about the urban legend and failed public relations exercise that there was 500 billion injected into the fiscus as an economic response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

We illustrated that the 500 billion was made up of 70 billion tax deferments, 200 billion loan guarantees used to benefit a few white businesses, 40 billion ... support business with wages paid from the Unemployment Insurance Fund, UIF, and other monies were sought from the reprioritisation of the existing Budget. The most tragic decision taken by your government was to borrow 100 billion from the International Monetary Fund, IMF, which, despite your denials, will lead to the micromanagement of South Africa’s fiscal policy. This means that under your watch Mr President, South Africa’s sovereignty against imperialist micromanagement has been compromised.

It is an illusion that we should focus our fight against corona only within the borders colonially defined as South Africa, whilst our brothers and sisters on the entire continent have nowhere to source assistance. The South African government should, as a permanent solution, build a state-owned pharmaceutical company and capacity, in collaboration with progressive countries such as Cuba and Russia because undisputed science has illustrated that the Russian vaccine has higher efficiency rates, and has possible and sound storage requirements. That is where we should refocus our attention. It is now difficult to believe that your insistence on the Johnson and Johnson vaccine is genuine because Johnson and Johnson has subcontracted your CR17 funders to be part of the manufacturers of the vaccine which does not have the necessary efficiency and capacity to insulate our people against the virus. If scientists say that the Russian vaccine is the most impactful vaccine against corona, why are we not pursuing it?

The provision of vaccines to South Africans must include an equal effort to provide vaccines to all Africans, including those from poor countries, because administering vaccines only in South Africa, when our brothers and sisters on the African continent are not vaccinated, is meaningless. Vaccinations and access to quality health care should be a human right, not a privilege reserved for the rich and powerful.

Let me tell you Mr President, that our principle to support Africans who are here, all over the continent and in the diaspora, will never be shaken by the so-called put South Africa first. We are Africans. There is nothing called South Africa. These borders were imposed on us by the nonsensical imperialists who knew that African unity will serve as a direct threat to imperialism and colonialism. If supporting Africans means we should lose votes, then so be it. If calling for the vaccination of fellow African brothers and sisters means we lose these seats of Parliament, let me go back to Masakhane. I will not sit back and see Africans dying whilst South Africa can afford to vaccinate them because I want a vote.

I call on you and your so-called liberation movement that benefitted a lot from Africa to rise and support the call of the EFF to vaccinate all of Africa, particularly the poor countries that cannot afford it, and particularly in Southern Africa because we are one community. Those borders that all of you speak about are imaginary. Look, yesterday the 15th you opened the borders, yet there was no stampede at the borders. What does it tell you? They were already here because your gates are imaginary. They exist only in your not so big head.

We call on the Department of Health and all health regulatory bodies for the regulation, professionalisation and mainstreaming of traditional African immunisation and disease prevention mechanisms such as steaming using ...

Sepedi15:07:24

... lengana goba “umhlonyane”. Re na re godišitšwe ke “makgonatšohle”. Re be re re ge re lwala, re rengwa ke hlogo, bakgekolo ba re fe “makgonatšohle”. Ge re be re bolawa ke mala ba be ba re fa “makgonatšohle”. Ga se re godišwe ke dipilisi tše tša makgowa tše.

Bjale re dira boipiletšo re re ge e le gore ka nnete o MoVenda wa gaborena wa go tšwa Venda wa go tseba gore dihlare tše tša rena tše le dipheko di šoma bjang, re thuše gore re šomane le selekanyo, gore dihlare tše tša gaborena tše, tšeo bomakgolo ba rena, bokoko Sara, ba re rutilego tšona pele ba eya badimong, re tšwele pele re di šomiša gore re se ke ra swarwa ke malwetši ao re sa a tsebego. A mangwe ba re a tšwa China, re sa tsebego gore re kopana kae le MaChina.

Bjale re thušeng ka gore re nyaka dihlare tše tša rena tša Sesotho di phuthelwe gabotse, le dilekanyo tša gona di bontšhwe gabotse gore di nwewa bjang - gore di se ke tša gakatša bolwetši, efela di bo okobatše ka mokgwa woo di bego di bo okobatša ka gona kgale ge re be re šomiša tšona dihlare tše le dipheko tše bakgekolo le bakgalabje ba re tlogeletšego tšona.

Makgowa ga ba di nyake, ka gore ba a tseba gore ge re ka ja mešunkwane le medi ye ya rena, ke moka dihlare tša bona tša sekgowa di ka se sa rekwa, gomme ba ka se sa dira tšhelete. Rena ga re tšhabe go bolela gore re gotše ka legare; re gotše re eja mešunkwane; re gotše re eja medu – ka gore rena ...

English:

... we are proud Africans.

Sepedi:

Ga re ikgantšhe ka dinaka tša go rwešwa tša go swana le tšeo wena o tsamayago o di rwele mo gare ga batho, mola o tseba le ge o robetše bošego gore ga o a lokelwa ke go ba Mopresidente.

English:

The South African government should play a leading role in the regularisation and mainstreaming of proven scientific solutions that are part of African tradition. It is problematic, reactionary and unacceptable for the government not to provide scientific guidance on alternative African methods of disease prevention and cure whilst a large number of our people depend on these solutions.

We demand that all intellectual property rights on vaccines and generic medicines be waived because saving lives in this critical period of a deadly virus should not be in pursuit of profits. Capitalist greed and opportunism should, in this age, be replaced by the spirit of human solidarity. During the Cold War, rivals in the war collaborated to fight the pandemics of chickenpox and polio, and to a large extent succeeded. In this regard, all countries in the world should collaborate to vaccinate the whole world’s population otherwise there will never be a lasting victory over coronavirus.

We call on government to extend the provision of the basic income grant into a permanent solution for all unemployed people in South Africa. We call for the increase of social grants for all people receiving social grants. We call for the introduction of a social and economic assistance programme that will help small and medium enterprises owned by black people because the 200 billion loan guarantees announced as part of the imaginary 500 billion package only benefitted white people.

We demand payment holidays for all people owing banks for houses and cars, and we demand payment holidays for all people paying rent. The payment holidays must be a national, compulsory resolution applied to all the people and not left to the discretion of financial institutions. No-one should, under this condition of the pandemic, be dispossessed of their houses and cars due to nonpayment because we are in a difficult situation economically and many people have lost their jobs. If banks and financial institutions continue to dispossess our people of their houses and cars, they will force us into militant and radical action against all of you.

Mr Ramaphosa, open the political space. [Inaudible.] ... activity because the banks are doing as they wish. You are also doing as you wish because you have deprived our people from occupying the space. [Inaudible] ... the political space so that we can go back to the picket lines and demonstrate to these banks that no-one can defeat the power of the masses.

Mr President, local government elections in 2021 will not be free, fair and transparent because you have closed the political ... [Inaudible.] We cannot hold elections in ... [Time expired.]

ENDS

Source: Unrevised Transcript, Hansard.