Cic Julius Malema response to 2022 State of the Nation Address

14 February 2022

House Chairperson and Mr. President

The 2021 Local Government Elections have now scientifically demonstrated through elections that less than 50% of the people of South Africa have confidence in the former liberation movement which has been in power since 1994.

Our people have been patient with the former liberation movement for more than 27 years, gave you the majority mandate to govern society with the hope and belief that you will defeat poverty through development of the economy, creation of jobs and reduction of inequalities.

It is evident now that despite the confidence given to the former liberation movement for more than 27 years, government has been unable to defeat poverty, failed to grow the economy and dismally failing to create jobs.

South Africa has the highest levels of joblessness in the world, and there is no believable programme and plan to create jobs for our people.

More than 10 million South Africans who are capable of working and are willing to work cannot find jobs anywhere, and these are black people who were systematically excluded from meaningful economic participation under colonialism and apartheid.

When political apartheid ended in 1994, our people had hope that a majority black government will use the capacity of the State to develop the productive forces, redistribute wealth, and create quality sustainable jobs for all.

When faced with the question of the white poverty problem and crisis, the apartheid government used the State and government to create opportunities for their own people, and almost completely eradicated joblessness and poverty amongst white people.

The post 1994 government has served to entrench this colonial and apartheid reality of making white people richer and black people poorer.

The poverty and joblessness of black people is getting worse under the current administration, with more than 1,7 million people who were previously employed losing jobs and majority if not all of these jobs were lost in the private sector.

Despite this basic and verifiable reality and statistic, a president of a former liberation movement comes here to say that government does not create jobs, and the hopeless people of our people must wait for the private sector to create jobs for them.

Sending our people the private sector for jobs is like sending a cattle to the slaughter

What we know about the private capitalist sector is that its purpose has never been and will never be about creation of jobs.

The purposes for capitalist industries to exist is not for jobs purposes.

The purpose and sole purpose of capitalism and the private sector is to make profits.

That is why private companies always adopt new technologies that seek to replace workers with machines.

That is why private companies always force government to weaken labour protection laws because they want to super exploit workers and pay them low or no wages without consequences.

That is why private companies always prefer to employ undocumented immigrants because they force them to work for longer hours and pay them almost nothing.

That is why private companies are willing to destroy the environment, dirty our rivers and pollute the environment as long as they make profits.

That is why private companies use private armies, security companies and even the police to shoot and kill workers who demand higher wages.

Workers who were demanding higher wages in Marikana were killed by the ANC government and the sole purpose was to protect private companies' right to make profits.

That is why all major capitalist corporations, particularly in the mining sector are involved in tax avoidance and illicit financial flows because they want to shift their profits to countries with low or no taxes.

There is no private capitalist corporation that has as its primary objective the purpose of job creation, they are all obsessed with profits at the expense of our people.

Despite all these, a president comes here to say our people must go to the private sector for jobs.

What is evident is all these things is that the former liberation has now officially admitted to what we said we launched the EFF in 2013, that the former liberation movement is incapable of and not willing to transform political power into economic power.

Kwame Nkrumah was always correct that political power without economic power is meaningless.

The former liberation movement has admitted that it will not use its political power to develop the productive forces and create jobs for our people.

It is also historically and empirically incorrect to suggest that the sole role of governments and the State is to create conditions for the private sector to create jobs.

The history of capitalism whether private or State capitalism whether in the WEST OR EAST has demonstrated that the State always plays a direct role in the creation and protection of jobs.

Let us perhaps give practical examples: China which is the fastest growing economy the world, South Africa and Africa's biggest trading partner has a significant State-owned sector of the economy that led economic expansion, built infrastructure and created millions of jobs.

The Grid Corporation of China established in 2002 is State owned and employs more than 1,5 million people.

China National Petroleum Corporation is State Owned and employs close to 500 000 people.

EMIRATES AIRLINE, which is State Owned employs more than 100 000 people. ROSATOM STATE NUCLEAR ENERGY CORPORATION established 2007 by the government of RUSSIA, is State Owned and employs more than 270 000 people. State Bank of India, which is owned by the government of India, employs almost 250 000 people.

BRANCO DO BRASIL, is a State-Owned Bank in Brazil and employs more than 60 000 people.

There are many other examples we can give you that demonstrate that the most rapid development of the productive forces happens under State leadership and guidance.

We are giving the real examples of these countries in the BRICS bloc, because these are important strategic partners to South Africa and the entire African continent historically, now and in the future.

You never said anything about BRICS, actually never gave any noteworthy analysis of the global balance of forces as if South Africa exists in isolation.

What we want to caution you though in that none of the countries in the G7, the colonial and imperialist forces you find comfort with are genuine friends of South Africa and the African continent.

What defines South Africa and the entire African continent to these Western imperialist countries particularly in the G7 is neocolonialism.

These countries have for centuries pillaged and raped the African continent and robbed us of our resources and any person who believes that there can ever be a developmental relationship between AFRICA and the WEST is either a fool, an embicile or both.

The only engagement the African continent can and must have with these imperialist forces is to stop them from stealing our minerals.

We as parliament and all progressive forces must work towards strengthening our political, social and economic relationships with progressive forces, particularly CHINA and RUSSIA and we must not be apologetic about that. These countries openly associated with the struggle against colonialism and apartheid and they will never shortchange us for material gains.

Mr. President, you must admit that under your leadership South Africa is a worse condition than it has ever been. You are currently the worse President to have ever occurred to black people, and we are not surprised that black people are getting poorer under your leadership.

Under your leadership, we have:

The highest levels of poverty and suffering of black people. The highest levels of unemployment.

The most disorganized and compromised security sector. Most frequent electricity cuts and load shedding.

Highest levels of corruption.

Parliament burnt under your leadership of government, and not because it was burnt by a homeless person, but due to negligence.

Dysfunctional public healthcare system and infrastructure.

Our education infrastructure is still incomplete and children still go to mud schools and use pit latrine toilets.

Neglect of the Sports, Arts and Culture sector which you never said anything about during SONA.

HIGHEST LEVELS OF CRIME

Dismal failure of the State criminal justice system to decisively deal with gender-based violence and femicide.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT particularly in rural areas is dysfunctional with more than 128 Municipalities in financial distress.

Under your tenure as a President, the situation in South Africa has gone from bad to worse.

The fact of the matter is Mr. President, your dream of being a President coming true, has been a nightmare for the people of South Africa.

What began as a so-called New Dawn, has become massive unemployment, increased violence against women and children, collapsing hospitals and the greatest threats against the security of the State in post-democratic South Africa.

When you assumed office, we warned you in the same way we warned your predecessor, that the people of this country have not elected you to act in the interests of a small elite.

We warned you not to surrender this country to the Ruperts and the Oppenheimers, who played a vital role in funding your life-long dream of being a President of this country.

Unfortunately, you did not listen to this warning, and became a shapeless individual, whose term was an impotent concoction of Special Envoys, Presidential Task Teams and Summits.

You wasted five-years, setting up structures in which you placed your friends from the business sector, to resolve political problems.

You did this because you mistook governance to be the same as running a company, and as a result our people's suffering intensified, while you sat and waited for capital to rescue the situation.

You now want to auction off the country to the highest bidder by privatization of State-Owned companies and we all know who will buy these State-owned assets—the white minority capitalist class that is at the core of your leadership of our people.

We reject all forms of privatizations that you plan to embark on and we will go to the streets to reject any form of privatization.

We gave you an opportunity to reclaim the land through our proposed amendment of section 2S of the Constitution and you hijacked our motion, distorted it and asked us to only expropriate abandoned and rotten land, and we rejected that with contempt.

There is absolutely nothing that you have done for black people.

You seem to think that each State of the Nation Address, is the beginning of a new term as President, which is why there is no consistency or implementation of your own objectives.

We will today take you through the mess you preside over, and your many unfulfilled promises.

In 2019, you claimed that you plan to ignite economic activity, restore investor confidence, support employment and address the urgent challenges that affect the lives of vulnerable members of our society.

Since then, you have been in charge of 15 financial year quarters, of which 8 had negative growth, with technical recession in the process.

From the last State of the Nation Address in 2021 to today, unemployment has increased from 30.8% to 34.9%.

In 2019, you said to us you will create 275,000 additional direct jobs every year.

When you became a President in 2018, unemployment was 26,7%, sitting at 5,9 million people.

In 2021 quarter 3, the unemployment rate increased to 34,9%, increasing to 7.6 million people.

To put this simply, more than 1.7 million people have lost their jobs since you became President.

You have now abandoned your strategy of summits and thumb sucked job creation figures and told us that the private sector must create jobs. You do this because you are running from your absolute failure to create employment.

The suggestion that the private sector must lead job creation is a neo-liberal policy born out of the consensus reached by the G7 when they summoned you to take pictures with them like a child.

You have now returned here and conspired with a racist official opposition, to force down a capitalist understanding of development that sidelines a democratically elected government.

The state must be at the centre of job creation and any compromise on that is an attempt to turn this country into a PTY Limited.

How can a leader of an alliance compromised by communists and trade unions, tell the entire country that the private sector must create jobs.

Because it is suppose to be you who illustrates to us based on case studies such as China and Cuba, the role of the state in developing sectors such as agriculture, pharmaceutical capacity and education

We must remind you that in 2019 you said you will reconstitute a professional and national intelligence capacity, you failed to do this, and as a result we have witnessed massive unrests in July 2021 which you failed to intercept, and we have seen the seat of our democracy go up in flames.

The state of security in this country is beyond embarrassing, and you have done nothing to give an impression that our people are safe under your leadership.

There are thugs today who go around calling themselves Operation Dudula, who are harassing innocent people, demanding proof of citizenship from them.

These armed individuals operate freely, because they know this country is run by cowards Violent crime is at an all time high Murders have increased by 20.7% in the second quarter of 2021, while contact related crimes, which include sexual assault and robbery, were up by 7%.

There has been a 30.2% increase in cases of arson, and a 6.5% increase in cases of malicious damage to property. This was a result of the violent factional fights of your organization spilling over into society.

Cash in Transit Heists are being co-ordinated by members of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF), working with members of the South African Police Services (SAPS) and former military men.

This was proven true as just last Friday, a member of the SANDF and SAPS were arrested for a Heist in Carletonville

From December 2021 till February 2022, there have already been 59 cash-in-transit heists.

Members of the security cluster are co-ordinating heists, yet State Security sits in your office.

There is no one you have failed more than the woman of this country.

There is nothing to suggest any of your talks about GBV have led to any relief for women. Women and children continue to be killed daily.

What your administration fails to understand is that there is a direct link between poverty, inequality, and crime, including gender-based violence.

While legislation will lead to institutional changes, the reality is that it is our failure to address poverty and inequality that will lead to no meaningful eradication of GBV in our society.

The biggest sell-out position you have taken, in which you betrayed centuries of self-less struggle by African people, is when you distorted the call for land expropriation without compensation.

History will record you for hijacking a principled motion, which would have reversed the sins of colonialism, and turning it into nothing but a superficial exercise, which will not change anything about the land ownership patterns in this country.

The EFF was correct to reject the proposed Section 25 amendment bill as it only sought to legitimate piecemeal approach to land reform, when what is required is radical shift that would lead to state-custodianship of land.

There was a naïve suggestion that our people must be given title deeds as opposed to State Custodianship, a perspective that will surrender our people to a greedy financial sector, that will exploit title deeds for loan sureity. This will result in the financial sector accumulating land and leave our people beholden to banks

The State, composed of an elected Parliament, appointed Executive and Independent Judiciary, is the most dependable custodian of South Africa's natural resources. The State is currently the custodian of South Africa's mineral resources, water and strategic pieces of land. The custodianship is justified by political, economic, historical, and moral justification, as state custodianship is intended to benefit most people.

State custodianship is the only practical manner in which South Africa can effectively succeed in land redistribution. Redistribution should be the essence of land reform, and the State cannot redistribute what it does not have. The risk of a piece-meal approach to land redistribution is that the State will distribute the land under its control and, at some point, find itself landless while white people continue to control the majority of the land.

On compensation, it is a matter of logic and political grasping of the history of the country and the continent, that the wealth and land accumulation of white people in this country is based on theft.

We cannot then depend on the goodwill of these individuals to enhance land reform, as we have seen they have set ridiculous prices for land under the willing buyer willing seller principle.

The proposed amendment, which sought to work in the basis of nil compensation is a distortion that leaves room for the benefactors of land theft to profit and undermine the redistribution of land.

The idea that there is going to be acceleration of land reform when majority of fertile and arable land belongs to the hands of few white people, and companies continue to control the food production value chain leaving the farmer poor, is not practical.

Only a radical transformation of land use will lead to spatial planning transformation, food security and reconstruction of South Africa's economy into a more equal society.

There is no evidence that the team led by the Deputy President and the panel appointed led by Dr Vuyo Mahlathi has led to any changes in government understanding of the land hunger amongst our people.

A land and agrarian reform agency is just another layer of administration that is not necessary and will only serve to create jobs for cadres and centralize corruption of land reform.

We welcome the resolution to industrialize cannabis, towards its development use in South Africa. We want to tell you now that this development must benefit local farmers in places such as the Eastern Cape, Limpopo and Kwa-Zulu Natal, not your lobby in Stellenbosch.

You have put us in billions worth of debt with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, and surrendered our nation to imperialists.

You have during this pandemic pledged loyalty to the West by purchasing vaccines from them exclusively, and approving vaccines from China knowing very well you will not order them.

Now you want to make it mandatory to take these vaccines, in order for people to keep their employment, attend University and interact with various industries in society.

We are not a developmental state, and as a result we play no meaningful role in international affairs. There is a pending war in Ukraine, that could plunge the whole world into conflict, but we cannot enter that space as peace keepers or advisors, because you do not command respect in the international community.

You had a term leading the African Union, in which coups have intensified, the colonial influence of France has deepened and the continent has become more fractured, even here in your own country, where you allow xenophobia to exist freely.

We are more vulnerable to re-colonisation, because you refuse to build a developmental and capable state, able to conduct its own affairs.

THE SOLUTION TO THE MANY DISASTERS DEFINING SOUTH AFRICA UNDER YOUR MISGUIDANCE AND MISLEADERSHIP will only come from the people of South Africa who must decisively vote against the former liberation movement because it has failed to develop the productive forces and have failed to create jobs.

Your State of the Nation Address, like the previous ones, is not worth the paper it was written on, and we have come to acknowledge that you accepted a job you have no capacity of doing.

Issued by the EFF, 14 February 2022