OPINION

Raceballs 7: Special Malema edition

An occasional feature celebrating the wit & wisdom of the colour-blinded and racially obsessed

I am here to disturb the white man’s peace. They are right, the white man has been too comfortable for too long. We are here unashamedly to disturb the white man’s peace. Because we have never known peace. We don’t know what peace looks like. They have been living peacefully. They have been swimming in a pool of privilege. They have been enjoying themselves because they always owned our land. We, the rightful owners, our peace was disturbed by white man’s arrival here. They committed a black genocide. They killed our people during land dispossession. Today, we are told don’t disturb them, even when they disturbed our peace. They found peaceful Africans here. They killed them! They slaughtered them, like animals! We are not calling for the slaughtering of white people, at least for now. – EFF leader Julius Malema in a speech outside Newcastle Magistrates court.

We will not chase white people into the sea. We will give them portion… That is where you stay. And you can’t own bigger than us. You are a visitor. Visitors must behave. They must know the land belongs to the people of South Africa, the indigenous people of South Africa. […] For as long as the land is not in the hands of black people we remain a conquered nation! We are conquered! We are defeated! 1994 means NOTHING without the land! Victory will only be victory if the land is restored in the hands of rightful owners. And rightful owners unashamedly is black people. No white person is a rightful owner of the land here in South Africa and in the whole of the African continent. This is our continent, it belongs to us. - Malema (again)

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Point 1: FACT- land in South Africa was taken through the mass butcher/slaughter of black people both under colonization & apartheid. 2. It's been 22yrs since 1994. We hope land restoration will not have to come to a situation where blacks have to also slaughter whites. 3. Each day blacks are assaulted by red ants, removed from lands they occupy due to landlessness. The state collaborates to deny blacks land. 4. We don't believe in any genocide of any group to address land question. Even though land dispossession of blacks was through mass murder. 5. It is more violent to ask homeless & landless blacks to buy land from whites as a form of democratic solution in the willing seller policy. 6. Our policy moves from the premise that colonization was a land crime. To resolve it you must restore land without compensation! 7. Whoever rejects land expropriation without compensation is asking blacks to accept their status in SA as a defeated & inferior people. 8. We not calling for any slaughter, but if people think blacks will continue to live in landlessness, then we won't have to. It will happen! 9. The reason EFF was formed is to resolve land question democratically, through legislation that expropriates without compensation! – EFF spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi’s defence of Malema’s remarks (on Twitter.)

You can't speak against whites in this country and don't expect the ruling party and media to attack you, the protectors of white privilege – Malema comment on Twitter over the subsequent controversy over his remarks.

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Even if you're uncomfortable with Malema's stand in this clip, listen. Listen to what he says & doesn't say. Why it resonates beyond #EFF. "Disturb white people's peace..." is very complex. Listen. Even if you disagree, resist urge to shut Malema down, ridicule & belittle him. "We have never know peace..."Listen to what Malema says. Connect with your own discomfort. Whatever you do, don't do 'swaart gevaar'. Listen "We are not calling for slaughter of white people... not yet." Listen. Engage meaningfully, with what Malema says. Even if you disagree. …. Think about this. If you believe that Malema is threatening slaughter of white people, what does that say about you? Listen. Think. Engage. If you heard that and are now fearing 'swaart gevaar' what are you saying about black people? Listen. Think. Own your discomfort. Engage. – Nomboniso Gasa Twitter.

“South Africa's Julius Malema challenges apartheid-era law” – the BBC website report’s headline on Malema’s remarks outside court.

A South African opposition leader on Monday threatened the country's white minority in a speech reflecting frustration among many in the black majority over a perceived lack of economic benefits since the end of apartheid.Christopher Torchia’s introductory paragraph to his wire report for Associated Press on Malema’s remarks.

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Sadly, in our haste to move on, we have failed to have meaningful conversations that confront the micro-aggression and the disguised abuse and violence. We have failed to address why the normative culture in a new South Africa, founded on constitutional principles, is still dominated by the notion that white is right and black is inferior. We have failed to confront the micro-aggressions that question the suitability of women to hold certain roles or the abuse that is meted out to those who are perceived as “different” by that normative culture. - Andrew Ihsaan Gasnolar, Daily Maverick.

We have never said we don’t want to write exams. Under no circumstances have we said we don’t want to write exams. All we said we said we want free education. And we will only talk about exams once you give us… once you meet our demands. We never said we won’t write exams. We have no business in disrupting those who want to write. But the only people who are writing is the white minority. Those are the only ones who are ready to write exams. Because they had all the material. They had tutors and lecturers, extra classes. While we were on the street protesting for the silent majority. – Wits Fallist leader Mcebo Dlamini speaking to the crowd on his release from prison.

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