EFF STATEMENT ON HERITAGE DAY
Tuesday, 24 September 2024
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) commemorates Heritage Day with a firm rejection of the hollow, symbolic unity that this day now represents. What was once a day rooted in the history of resistance—known as Shaka Day, honouring the visionary leader who united the Zulu nation—is now a diluted celebration of cultural diversity, devoid of any reflection on the real conditions under which our people continue to suffer.
As we stand in 2024, how can we celebrate heritage in a country where Black people and Africans is particularly majority remains economically enslaved? The land remains in the hands of a few, with 72% of privately owned land controlled by white minorities. The wealth of our nation is still concentrated in the hands of the descendants of colonisers, while the majority of South Africans are relegated to townships, informal settlements, and rural areas with no access to basic services like clean piped water, dignified sanitation, and electricity.
What heritage are we celebrating when the women of this country are not free? Women are still oppressed by violence, poverty, and systemic exclusion from the economy. The unemployment rate for African women remains staggeringly high, and those who do work are subjected to exploitative conditions. The govemment has failed to deliver on the promise of true gender equality, with policies that continue to entrench patriarchal oppression rather than dismantle it.
We also cannot ignore the racial divisions that plague our society. Racism runs deep, from the workplace to our schools, and even in government policies. Our people still experience the dehumanising effects of racial inequality daily when our children are marginalised in their own schools where they have to learn in coloniser's languages, isolated from their mother tongues. The illusion of a "rainbow nation" has failed, and we live in a society that continues to marginalise the African majority, while white supremacists institutions and individuals operate with impunity.
Heritage Day, under these conditions, is a mockery. This day cannot be reduced to braais and traditional outfits while the majority of South Africans still bear the brunt of colonial and apartheid legacies. Our heritage is not in monuments or celebrations of cultural diversity alone—it is in the blood, sweat, and sacrifices of those who fought for freedom, and in the ongoing struggle against white monopoly capital, corruption, and exploitation
The EFF calls on all South Africans to reflect deeply on the meaning of Heritage Day. It must be a day to rededicate ourselves to the fight for a South Africa where all our people have access to the land and our country's vast mineral wealth that has been systematically denied to black people and Africans in particular.
Statement issued by Leigh-Ann Mathys, Economic Freedom Fighters, 24 September 2024
