Durban — EFF leader Julius Malema labelled Nhlanhla Lux’s Operation Dudula as “self-hate”, during his almost two hour long interview on the popular YouTube podcast ‘Podcast and Chill with MacG’.
Malema did not mince his words when quizzed by the podcast's hosts Macgyver “MacG” Mukwevho and Sol Phenduka on his thoughts about the movement which claims to fight for jobs and business opportunities for locals and drive out undocumented immigrants.
Shooting from the hip, Malema denounced Operation Dudula as a form of black-on-black hatred. He also touched on the controversial issue of expropriation of land and stepping down as EFF leader.
“Well it's self-hate hey, it’s self-hate,” Malema said of Operation Dudula. “Black people are not loved all over the world, all over the world.
“You know if you get into China, a young child of a Chinese is going to come here and do this to you (gesturing by holding and dusting MacG’s hand) because they think you’re dirty. That’s us, black people, we are hated all over the world,” Malema said.
He went on to say that instead of a black person hating a fellow black person who is already hated all over the world, black should instead show each other love.
“Criminals, let’s deal with them. I have no time for thugs, I don’t tolerate thugs, I have got no time for thugs but I’m not going to beat up a person because he is dark and ugly in my eyes,” Malema said.
He went on to say that the first thing he would do if he became the President of South Africa would be to expropriate the land and make the state the custodian of the land.
“The rest of unutilised land must be utilised. Why must you be just going around telling people ‘in my book I have got 5 000 hectares’ and when you are asked how many hectares you are using you find it’s only 10 when there are so many people without land.
“In Mozambique, the land is owned by the state. Let me tell you these whites who are saying ‘you want to expropriate our land, we are leaving’, they are not going far. They are going to Mozambique where the land is owned by the state. In China the land is owned by the state, China is progressive, it’s an alternative to capitalism. They make things happen,” Malema said.
Having been the founding father of the EFF, Malema also dispelled the notion that he would stay as EFF leader forever.
“The founder of the 26th of July Movement, Fidel Castro and later Communist Party, at some point stepped down and in China the leaders of the Communist Party stepped down. In the EFF there are elections held every five years and every five years when you are elected they don’t say ‘Continuing President’ they say ‘Newly elected President’.
“I can’t wait for the day when I hand over the baton to the younger generation because I’ve done this thing (being in politics) since I was nine years old, I don’t know any other life except this,” Malema said.
He said that he wished to retire at 50 or 55 years of age because the party had invested in the EFF Student Command because the success of leaders depended on whether they have prepared the second and third generation of leadership.
The ANC was also in Malema’s firing line. He said that the ruling party would not survive the 2024 General Elections.
“It won’t survive. Here (in Gauteng) the ANC is at 50 point 1, it’s ruling Gauteng at 50 point 1 and they couldn’t even run their own conference and it had to sit on two separate weekends which is practical evidence of a serious crisis.
“So no miracle is going to happen between now and 2024 for the ANC to gain any support in Gauteng. They are ruling with one extra man, if he goes into hospital and then there’s a motion of no confidence we can remove those people,” Malema said.
Malema also declared his own presidential ambitions when MacG asked him if he could become the future president of the country.
“That’s where we are going, why are you asking obvious questions,” Malema said while laughing.
SUNDAY TRIBUNE