SPEAKING NOTES BY THE EFF COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF JULIUS MALEMA FOR THE SONA DEBATE

16 February 2016

Honourable Speaker, we thank you for the opportunity to speak to South Africans, Africans and the world about issues confronting our people. We should make it very clear that we don't have time for the so called state of the nation. We refuse to legitimize a morally and politically compromised President of the Anc. We do not recognise him due to his incapacity, lack of direction, association with criminal elements, unaccountability and pure disregard of the Constitution and the people of South Africa.

We are here to speak about a country where more than 26 million of its population leave in absolute poverty and suffering.

We are here to speak about a country where more than 8 million of its capable workforce cannot find jobs, because the State under its current leadership cannot provide jobs.

We are here to speak about the many capable children who do not have access to quality and free education because the State cannot provide free quality education for all,however we comforted by the militant structures like Fees must fall movement, Rhodes must fall movement  and the Eff students command because they are keeping the dream of decolonization and free education alive.

We must not forget that we are in a country where the black majority, more than 80% of the population is congested and squeezed in less than 20% of the land because the rest of the land is owned and controlled by those who colonially took it from the African majority through committing black genocide.

We must not forget that we are in a country where settler colonialists and white monopoly capital is in control of almost all sectors of the economy. The white minorities own and control every section of the economy, including the maize meal which feeds majority of our people because the former liberation movement betrayed its founding principles.

We must not forget that we are in a country where the African majority continue to be slaves and suppliers of cheap labour to the white minority as cleaners, garden boys, domestic workers, car guards, petrol attendants, security guards, rock drill operatives, and everything that pays low wages. The ANC has destroyed the nursing,teaching and policing profession by paying those workers peanuts.

Our people are hungry for the land, land hunger is a reality.

Our people are misled to celebrate the so called black middle class and the black executives who are nothing but credit worthy and indebted blacks who do not own and do not control anything.

We are here to ask the whole of South Africa to listen to the voices of struggling masses of our people in the informal settlements like Thembelihle, Scwetla, Winnie Mandela squatter camps, Chris Hani Squarter Camps, Joe Slovo Squarter Camps, Diepsloot, Alexandra, Marikana and all the dejected and neglected areas where poor black people live.

Fellow South African majority of our black people in townships live in a state of indignity and congestion, they live like pigs when they are alive and even when they are dead. The African majority in eThekwini, Sebokeng, Hamanskraal, Soshanguve, Umlazi, KwaMashu, Mdantsane and many areas are still forced to share a small pice of land when they are alive and even in death they are still forced to share graves; where more than two people are buried in one grave.

My brothers and sisters let's pay solidarity to Rock Drill Operators, the Mineworkers, the Metalworkers, the workers of Shoprite and all the retail Stores who are underpaid and some employed through Labour Brokers.

22 years after the so called democracy, less than 10 percent of the land has been redistributed. We want to reveal the obvious fact that if it takes 22 years to redistribute 10% of the land, it will take South Africa 100 years to redistribute 50% of the land.

Our economy is just a consuming economy and we are unable to manufacture and produce even the basic consumer goods and services such as phones, televisions, cars, many food items, teaspoons, match sticks, tooth picks, and clothes.

What kind of a self-respecting country fails to produce food for itself despite the availability of arable land?

More than 10 million workers who wake up every day to sell their labour and yet cannot afford basic things such as houses, cars, clothes and education for their children.

Many black South Africans who die every day because of curable diseases and sickness, yet cannot get access to quality medical care because they do not have money.

We speak of this realities because the so called President never spoke about them. He instead tried to assure the interests of few white capitalists and few of his puppet masters who tell him what priorities of the State should be to make them richer.

We are aware that during his speech, he half-heartedly spoke about the relocation of Parliament to one capital city because what we have in South Africa today are colonial and Settlers’ compromises.

The fact that South Africa has separate Capital and Administrative Cities is a result of colonial compromises and settlement of the Anglo-Boer War, and while many Africans died in that war, they were not part of the ultimate political settlement in the early 19 hundreds.

More than money, it is politically correct for South Africa to have one Capital City to affirm its own identity as a post-colonial political territory, not unworkable Capital Cities that waste resources for our people.

On the 11th of February 2016, we decidedly and courageously refused to be addressed by an illegitimate and morally compromised human being who happens to be President of the ruling party and our country South Africa.

In our previous life, we uncritically accepted so many lies,fictions and conspiracy theories created about Mr. Jacob Zuma, and our fear for a third term resulted in the crisis we have today.

His questionable political life and the events that led to him being President are questionable and we should have known then that he is not suitable,not fit and proper human being to occupy the position of President of the Republic of South Africa. All the signs of him not being suitable for the office of the president were there but we choose to ignore them like many of you do today.

This is the man who knowingly had sex with an HIV Positive woman and later explained to Court that a shower would lessen the chances of contracting HIV. We are now a laughing stock of the world.

This is the man who knowingly impregnated a friend’s child, despite that he had many wives at home.

This is the man who did not take any decisive action against a family who's private jet landed at a critical National Key Point, and he instead attends that family’s gatherings and consults them on key issues relating to the country.

This is the man who dines and takes comfort with being the events of a family that compromised the security of our country, by landing at a national key point without proper approval.

This is the man who appoints Ministers with close relations to the Gupta family, and those Ministers immediately start negotiating business deals for the Guptas and his son.

When I was still friends with Minister of Sports, he received a call from the Guptas and they told him that he will be Minister. That is when he was still the Deputy Minister of Police.

This is when he still had courage and he went to the NEC and even cried about why he was appointed by Guptas. We think he will still come around.

This is the man who in December 2015, exchanged Ministers of Finance in South Africa, gave misleading and wrong reasons, and accelerated our country and currency into a Junk status, which led to a loss of more than R500 billion.

The crisis caused by the mindless and unexplained changes in National Treasury are not some elite or palace battles, it is a crisis that have direct impact on the lives and livelihoods of ordinary South Africans.

When South Africa’s currency is weak, it will become more expensive for South Africans to buy basic consumer goods and services from other parts of the world.

As we speak now and in the context of drought, South Africa has to import more than 6 million tons of Maize Meal which is staple food for more than 80% of South Africans.

A weak currency will mean that everything that we import from other parts of the world will be expensive and unaffordable for many families and all this because of one man.

Our country is being relegated to a junk country because of the actions and decisions of one man.

This one man called a President is responsible for the many ills affecting our country and he blames all these on the global economy.

There are challenges in the global economy, but Mr. Zuma is responsible for the many ills confronting our country.

Alongside Mr. Zuma’s unforgivable blunders, are Ministers and Premiers who learn from the best and replicate the same form of corruption and unaccountability in their departments and provinces.

The Premier of the Free State, Ace Magashule is the most corrupt Premier in South Africa, who is not accountable to anyone.

The Premier of Mpumalanga Province is the most corrupt Premier in South Africa who plays part in the disappearance of his opponents in his province and loot as he wishes.

The Premier of the North West is corrupt, plays a part in the disappearance of opponents in his province and not being held accountable.

These and many others engage in these activities with the knowledge and endorsement of one man, whom we all are expected to treat with respect.

Alongside the ills caused by him, is a family who are business partners of his son and business partners of his political subjects, the Gupta family.

The Gupta family’s influence and capture of the South African State and Government is not a fiction, and the reasons we have provided are just a tip of an iceberg.

The Guptas are party to the institutionalisation of mediocrity here in South Africa, and this is shown by their mediocre media houses, and other businesses that are parasitic on the State.

South Africa we stand here, bound and obliged by our constitutional and moral obligations, and call for the immediate removal of Mr. Zuma as a president of the Republic of South Africa.

Mr. Zuma has caused so much damage and is in the process causing more damage.

Under his watch, huge amounts of Money from the Police Slush Fund, meant for fighting crime is disappearing

Under his watch, money meant for the secret services to warn the country of impending threats, is disappearing in huge volumes,

We cannot stand back and do nothing when one individual is accelerating South Africa into further decay. The man has accepted to have breached his oath of office and the constitution.

The reality is that in no time and under Mr. Zuma’s watch and supervision, we will be left with no country and no systems to hold our people accountable.

WE ARE HERE TODAY TO ONCE AGAIN APOLOGISE TO FORMER PRESIDENT MBEKI FOR BEING PART OF THOSE WHO REMOVED HIM ON THE BASIS OF LIES, RUMOURS AND GOSSIPS SPREAD BY THE SITTING PRESIDENT.

WE APOLOGISE TO PRESIDENT MANDELA FOR ALLOWING MR. ZUMA TO RUIN HIS LEGACY AND TURNING SOUTH AFRICA INTO A JUNK COUNTRY.

I had a meeting with Mr. Zuma where he told me that he does not want to work with President Mbeki.

I then led a charge for the removal of President Mbeki after that meeting. Mbalula then called me from the mountain to say I must not participate in that process to remove President Mbeki

We never and will never agree with the economic policies pursued by both President Mbeki and Mandela, but at least they knew what they stood for.

WHAT we have here is a President who is concerned about himself and his family.

To all SOUTH AFRICANS, our message is clear and simple: FREEDOM IS COMING, the ECONOMIC FREEDOM FIGHTERS is the LAST HOPE FOR JOBS AND SERVICE DELIVERY.

We are the LAST HOPE FOR MASSIVE INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT TO CREATE MILLIONS OF JOBS.

We are the LAST HOPE for FREE QUALITY EDUCATION FOR ALL.

We are the LAST HOPE for QUALITY HEALTHCARE, FOR SANITATION, and FOR BETTER SERVICES.

We are the LAST HOPE for the WAR AGAINST CORRUPTION.  

THE EFF is the LAST HOPE for the people of Scwetla, of Mdatsane, Umlazi, Soweto, Mahwelereng, Bushbuckridge, Orange Farm, Gugulethu, Kjayelitsha, Umthatha, and all the areas where there are no jobs and basic services for our people.

The EFF is the LAST HOPE for the workers of TOYOTA in KwaZulu Natal, of all Metal Workers in Nelson Mandela, Buffalo City and Tshwane.

We are the HOPE of all Mineworkers in Marikana, and the entire Platinum Belt, Kuruman, Kimberly, the trapped workers of Lily mine and all the areas where workers face brutal exploitation.

Mr Zupta your legacy can be summed up into three things, Mshini wame, Nkanda and Guptas.

You are not a legitimate president. I’m leaving. I cannot sit here to debate your address.

Issued by the Economic Freedom Fighters, 16 February 2016