Recently, an article was posted to South Africa Today, entitled “EFF ‘promise’ houses for Pretoria’s poor white community”. As any South African might guess, the article is controversial, as indeed are the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), who are renowned for their provocative statements.
The EFF are known for being “anti-white”, yet they have recently been working, it appears, to revise this aspect of their collective image. The leader of the EFF, Julius Malema, has recently stated emphatically (’emphatically’ is, perhaps, his default) that the party is not anti-white and that the party want white members. This was reiterated by Moafrika Mabongwana, deputy chairman of the EFF in Tshwane, while visiting a predominantly white, economically disadvantaged community in Hermanstad. “We want to dispel a particular myth that the EFF is for particular people. All of you here are welcomed in the EFF. The EFF is not an anti-white organisation. The EFF doesn’t want to drive white people to the sea. All we are hated for is speaking truth to power,” he stated.
He carried on to promise RDP houses to the community, as well as claiming that those who rely on government grants would not have to pay for water, electricity or pay taxes under EFF administration, ostensibly as it is not sensible for the local government to provide grant money and subsequently take it back through such costs.
If it seems a little jarring to you that the EFF seems so much more white-friendly than you expected, you are perfectly fine. The fact is, if this new approach is in any way genuine, it is a full reversal of previous EFF publicly aired sentiment.
For quite a while before these recent events, the EFF have made it clear that they intend to target and victimise white people. For example, when addressing supporters at the Madadeni College Stadium in Newcastle, KwaZulu-Natal, Malema claimed that white people could not claim ownership of land in South Africa, because it belongs to the black majority. He said: “If we say that South Africa belongs to whites too it means we are defeating what our forefathers were fighting for.” Populist rhetoric, or the actual EFF attitude?
He even went so far as to state that land cannot be shared amongst those who work it, as stated in the Freedom Charter, because that would mean that white people who work land, could claim ownership. “These whites found us here and not one of them came with a piece of land in their pockets.” He says that once black people have been declared the rightful owners, they would decide what percentage to give to white people who have been “neutralised”. Even if this was not fully sincere, it is the epitome of anti-white sentiment.
According to Malema, black people may occupy land illegally, without apologising, because white people cannot claim ownership of the land. Clearly, this bias is more important than the Constitution to the EFF.
As quoted from BusinessTech: “He agreed with a clause in the Freedom Charter that says that the land belongs to all who work and live on it – however, he said this does not apply to white people.” According to Malema, the African National Congress (ANC) has failed to uphold the Freedom Charter and thus, it is up to the people (specifically black people) to “take back the land”. He states: Wealth is not what is in your bank account, being rich is to have the land. When you have land you can create jobs. You can even hire the children of white people.”
These two speeches took place about a week apart.
On 16 June, Malema stated: “We are not fighting against [white people]‚ we are not fighting for [white people] either. We are fighting for black people. Anyone who fights for white people is fighting for white people privilege.” This was at the Risko Fakude stadium in Embalenhle‚ Secunda.
He continued to say that the EFF are fighting for poor people to have equal economic freedom rights to “their white counterparts”. Black-on-white racism, after all, is permissible somehow, and the implied black-on-black racism is… who knows? Also, note how poor people are implicitly black according to this.
He also added that the EFF are fighting for the Afrikaans language to fall: “When you enter a bank‚ the door is written in two languages English and Afrikaans. Why? Where is isizulu‚ where is seSotho. We want it to be equal‚ when you write in Afrikaans we want you to write in all the languages.” Of course, English and Afrikaans are used because they are the two most spoken languages in SA (by all races), so being offended only by Afrikaans is rather arbitrary – unless that dislike is due to association with white people, and thus racist itself.
There are many more examples of the EFF contradicting itself.
“Don’t think that Zuma is our enemy. Zuma is not our enemy, it’s just that he is standing in the way, and we must remove him to get our land back. […] Zuma is standing between us and our enemy. Move out of the way. Zuma must pave the way because [whites] are the one who stole our land,” says Malema. “The whites are the ones who committed black genocide. Who killed Solomon Mahlangu? It was not Zuma, it was the white regime. White people must stop being cry-babies and they must take responsibility […] White people are going to return our land the same way Zuma will return our money. White people must never think we have abandoned the land question. We will never abandon it. We are the land, our identity is our land. We are nothing without our land.”
Malema states that people must not ask what black people would do with the land once they have it, because “[w]hat we do with it is none of your business.” He also added that people should not claim that the land belongs to the Khoisan, not black people (who migrated to South Africa from the north many, many years after the Khoisan had settled here). He said that land belongs to all Africans, including blacks.
According to Malema, white people must “learn to share”, but that South Africa would be “boring without whites”.
An EFF party member, Tesh Ndlovu, stated in 2014: “We’ve taken measures to eliminate all white people in South Africa …”. That sounds more like genocidal sentiments than a joint shower installation project by neo-Nazis and the Klu Klux Klan. “Eliminate”? We all know what that word is a polite euphemism for – and will they also target mixed race citizens, like Hitler’s regime?
“We are not anti-white, we are for all, but particular black people. White minority you have been warned,” states Malema. OK, not anti-white, but whites be warned… some mixed signals there.
Clearly, the EFF has a bit of a split personality disorder.
Even if the EFF claim that they want agricultural land, not estate land, the majority of agricultural land is state-owned rather than white-owned . So why are the EFF targeting white-owned land? Simply put, it is a marketing ploy. Both the EFF and the ANC enjoy using racial division to reel in votes – this tactic is clear in their electioneering speeches.
Nowadays, one needs training to work agricultural land – that is, if one wants to produce products on an industrial level. Land needs to rest after crops have been delivered, so not all the land can be used all the time, and economy of scale makes or breaks a farmer. Ask any commercial farmer, of any race, whether a farm half the size of his would work as well: the answer will be “no”. It can’t. Buying a tractor for every 10 hectare will never work, and doing shared infrastructure programs is beyond the capabilities of SA for now.
How can a political party promise RDP houses to a white community, while threatening to take white-owned land, and even white lives? On what land will the RDP houses be built and to who will it belong?
Few people realise that, according to the EFF manifesto, no one will own land – the state will own all the land – so black people who believe they will own land, have a nasty surprise waiting for them. Think Zuma is bad? Malema is a good student of both Zuma and Mugabe, and could eventually surpass them both as a dictator with a thin coat of democratic camouflage.
My question is: How are the EFF fooling anyone? Also, think about this: Pretending at democracy, for the use of one race only, is the very evil the Struggle sought to banish. The EFF want to resurrect it. The EFF wants a New Apartheid. A land for Blacks Only – but South Africa has not even recovered from the last such regime, and it would fall apart in only a few years.
If you want South Africa to fade away and become just another obscure little African nation, vote EFF. If not, you know what to do. Spread the word.
Please have a look at other articles by Lelouch Giard at http://vigilantvoicersa.wix.com/a-vigilant-voice
