Johannesburg – The Economic Freedom Fighters will not achieve its aims through spilling blood and wants a country where blacks and whites are equals, party leader Julius Malema told the American Chamber of Commerce, which described his speech as "both chilling and charming".

“We don’t seek black dominance, we seek equality,” Malema told an audience that included US Ambassador Patrick Gaspard and representatives of US companies like Coca-Cola and Johnson & Johnson on Tuesday.

Malema confirmed there would be state expropriation of land and nationalisation.

People should not be killed, but persuaded, he said.

Malema said the EFF agreed with Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe on seizing land, but not with the methods he had used.

“There’s nothing the EFF will do which is against the Constitution and the rule of law. We are the only party that protects the rule of law,” said Malema.

He said the corrupt payments made by Japanese power company Hitachi to the ANC, for contracts relating to the Medupi power plant, were merely the ruling party’s modus operandi.

“Well that’s how they operate. Hitachi is part of ... [the] mess of the ANC which has turned the public purse into the purse of Zuma and the ANC,” he said.

The chamber's past president emeritus Roger Crawford summed up Malema's talk by saying: "It was both chilling and charming".

This article first appeared on News24 – see here.