Former ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema has described Zimbabwe's achievements under Zanu-PF rule as an "inspiration to Africa". This is according to a report in the Zanu-PF supporting Herald newspaper in Harare, Zimbabwe.
Malema was speaking at the wedding of Zanu-PF Youth League members, Tendai Wenyika and Mike Gava in Harare on Saturday. Among the other guests in attendance were senior Zanu-PF officials including Nathan Shamuyarira, David Parirenyatwa, Saviour Kasukuwere, Chris Mutsvangwa and Cde Patrick Zhuwao. Almost the entire ANC Youth League leadership was also reportedly in attendance.
Addressing the guests Malema stated: ‘‘We are coming here to Zimbabwe not because we are running away from problems, but to come and gain strength because what you have achieved is an inspiration to Africa. Don't listen to imperialist newspapers. You have achieved a lot. You are running your own country, you have been managing your own affairs and you are not controlled by foreigners. That is what we need in South Africa. So we came here just to seek an inspiration and wisdom so that when we go home, we can double the spirit of fighting against imperialist forces.''
Malema added: ‘‘Our struggle is a defined struggle. We are not a lost generation. We are asking what belongs to us. We are not asking for any favour neither are we victimising anybody." He said the youth in South Africa were calling on whites to surrender their land and mines - without compensation - because "when they came from Europe they did not carry any land into South Africa. What we are asking is for them to surrender our minerals because they did not come with any mineral."
"We want that land and those minerals for free because they never paid for those minerals. Actually they killed people to get that land and those minerals. We are not going to give them money when we take the land back because it will be like we are thanking them with money for killing our people. We will never do that, little did they know that we are not scared of blood. We are scared of defeat. We don't want to be defeated but seeing blood is not what we are scared of as long as that blood delivers what belongs to us we are prepared to go to that extent. Because it cannot be generations before us, which has failed to deliver what rightfully belongs to us and we equally fail the future generation. We want to be remembered as a generation of economic freedom fighters."
Malema also took a dig at ANC President Jacob Zuma's polygamy in a comment which, the Herald said, left many in the audience in stitches of laughter. He stated that: "comrade Marupeng (an ANCYL member) raised a very important point last night. She spoke about them (Mike and Tendai) having many kids and people laughed as if having many kids is a taboo. You must never be ashamed of having many kids; you must be ashamed of having many wives, not many kids. Many wives are not an alternative. Actually they spread diseases because that is multi-sexual relationship and they are not protected. Have many kids with one wife Mike.
We want to see many kids, why? Because we must reproduce ourselves. For our ideas to be sustainable, we have to reproduce ourselves. In the whole of Africa, we are not more than one billion and the world has got seven billion people. In Africa we have not more than one billion people. What it means is that we have gone less than a billion people in Africa facing more than six billion. We have to be half of that so that our ideas can dominate. I know that in some instances size does not matter . . . but when it comes to a revolution, size matters."
Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter
