SOWETO, South Africa – Opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema has told white farmers in the country that there is no nicer place to live in the world than South Africa but they must learn to share the land.
The backdrop to this were incendiary claims made by US President Donald Trump’s right-hand man Elon Musk that Malema should be declared an international criminal
In a statement, Malema’s EFF said it would “not be cowed into submission, retreat nor capitulation from its principled and unwavering commitment to confront imperialism and its surrogates like Elon Musk anywhere and everywhere it rises its ugly head”.
On Sunday, Malema addressed the St Paul African Apostolic Church in Soweto;
“Yesterday [Saturday], I was in an auction by Pieter du Toit in Rustenburg,” he said of the event that was also attended by Democratic Alliance (DA) leader and Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen.
“In that auction, 95% of those people were white people. I sat with them from 11am until 6pm, wanting to demonstrate to Elon Musk and Donald Trump that I’m with the people you say I want to kill,” Malema said.
Malema said he told the white farmers, “You’re not going anywhere because it’s nicer in South Africa”.
“There is no any other place which is nicer than South Africa, where black and white can co-exist without problems. The only thing you need to change is your hearts. You must learn to share, and share the land with the rest of the other people,” Malema said.
“We might look like we’re a nation that’s in a racist conflict. We’re not in a racist conflict; we’re in a robust engagement as people who were excluded from the economy, and that robustness might look like it’s violence against a particular nation, it is not. It’s our cry to have our dignity back.”
Malema said he was “happy” that Musk had referred to him as an international criminal, the same way the late struggle icon Nelson Mandela was also described as one.
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