EFF leader Julius Malema says he is not aiming to be president of South Africa, but is focusing on his party becoming the government by 2019.
“I don’t have ambition to become a president, I have an ambition of making the EFF the government of South Africa,” he said in an interview with Al Jazeera on Sunday night.
“I am not in this thing for myself.”
Malema said that the party had gained 6% of the vote when it was less than one year old and based on that trajectory, it should be a contender by 2019.
“We want to take this country by 2019,” he told Jonah Hull. ”And if we don’t take this country by 2019 we must be an official opposition with a clear direction of taking over power. Because we said, from the beginning, we are government in waiting.”
The party was open to working with any party “who represents clean governance, anyone who wants to restore the dignity of black people”, but would reject those who wanted to bring white dominance “through the back door”.
“We want a party that is ready to empower a black nation.”
When asked whether the EFF policies would turn South Africa into an economic “basket case” with ratings agencies already breathing down the country’s neck, Malema said South Africa was at a point where alternative policies could be introduced.
Businesses would be safe and there would be foreign investment even with a socialist government.
It would just be a change of political system with no bloodshed or civil war.
But land must be returned from white people on the grounds that it was stolen.
“We don’t want it from the sky, we want it from white people.”
For this the Constitutional Court should be consulted on the law governing expropriation.
At first Malema said the Constitution did not say there had to be compensation for expropriation but Hull read from the Constitution to say that expropriation with compensation is allowed if it is just and mutually agreed.
“We need to go to the court and stretch that constitutional clause,” Malema replied, adding that the court should issue a declaratory order over whether compensation is necessary.
Or, the population should be convinced that a two thirds majority vote is the right thing to do to amend the Constitution.
Source : News24
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