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(NEWZIMBABWE) Malema pushes Zim-style land reforms

Malema pushes Zim-style land reforms
by Staff Reporter/Sapa
21/04/2011 00:00:00

THE ANC Youth League (ANCYL) is pursuing a campaign for Zimbabwe-style land redistribution without paying compensation, its president Julius Malema said in his hate speech trial on Thursday.

In response to questions on the subject, Malema said the current official policy of willing buyer, willing seller, was not working and a “more radical” policy was needed.

“But now there is a discussion document we have launched as the youth league on taking over the land without compensation,” he said.

He would not be drawn on repeated questions about whether this meant land would be taken from whites.

On further questioning, he said: “The revolution I pursue seeks to transfer power from the minority to the majority.”

In an earlier interview with the BBC’s Hardtalk programme Malema said South Africa could learn from Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe’s “courage” in seizing land from white commercial farmers without paying compensation.

“The only thing we can learn from him (President Mugabe) is his courage… we don’t agree with the method used … forceful and beating up of people but we need to take over the land without compensation,” he told the BBC.

Critics blame the land seizures for Zimbabwe’s economic melt-down over the last decade; allegations denied by the government which insists that Western sanctions were responsible for the collapse.

However, Malema said South Africa would ensure that beneficiaries made productive use of the land.

According to the ANC's Freedom Charter, which Malema described as the Bible of the party, the land should be shared by all who work it in South Africa.

He also conceded that the ANCYL was pursuing the nationalisation of mines and was “going there” with banks and other monopolies.

Malema is on trial under the Equality Act for alleged hate speech for singing the lyrics “awudubhule ibhunu”. He said he did not recognise the translation from isiZulu as “shoot the boer”.

“When it is translated, it does not mean the same,” said Malema, who is defending his right to sing the lyrics based on their significance during the struggle against apartheid.

Malema sang the lyrics four times in South Africa and once in Zimbabwe.

Labels: ANC YOUTH LEAGUE, JULIUS MALEMA, LAND REFORM

posted by MrK @ 10:29 PM