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(NEWZIMBABWE) Malema re-elected, calls for land reforms

COMMENT - "Malema, the son of a maid..." This is what they think is important at NewZimbabwe.com? And pray tell, why was his mother a maid? What happened to her land? You can always tell which side the neoliberals are on.

Malema re-elected, calls for land reforms
by Staff Reporter
18/06/2011 00:00:00

THE youth wing of South Africa's ruling African National Congress re-elected its president Julius Malema for a second term on Friday, and he wasted no time calling for nationalisation of mines and seizure of white-owned lands without compensation.

The ANC Youth League, arguably the party's most powerful bloc, re-elected an unopposed Malema for another three-year term at its on-going conference. His only rival, Lebogang Maile, pulled out at the last minute despite earlier having insisted he would take-on the hugely-popular incumbent. Malema said he was humbled by the support and ready to lead.

"I'm humbled by the fact that the comrades have given me the mandate. I shall not disappoint,” he said.

Long considered kingmakers within the ANC, the youth league has been used by senior members of the party to drive policy change and launch leadership races.

Malema helped South African President Jacob Zuma in his 2007 rise to power, although there has been friction between the two since, particularly over the issue of nationalisation.

Zuma has dismissed the league's drives to nationalise mines in the world's biggest platinum producer and seize white-owned farms. Malema, the son of a maid, has drawn the ire of whites for his singing of apartheid-era songs that advocate the shooting of white farmers.

While his views may have unsettled foreign investors, he has won broad support from the millions of South Africans who are still mired in grinding poverty almost two decades after the end of apartheid. And he returned to the populist themes even as Zuma watched on Friday.

"Our calls for mines to be nationalised and land to be expropriated without compensation is currently our most important issue," he told the 6,000 delegates in a 90-minute speech.

Malema said past efforts to redistribute resources from the white minority to the black majority had failed dismally.

"The struggle for land reform and transfer of land is long overdue and should be speeded up to avoid the conflicts that characterise many post-independence African states," he said.

"We refuse to continue living like we are in a colony. The only solution available to us now is expropriation without compensation.

"We have demonstrated, through sound political and ideological arguments, that mines in South Africa can be and should be nationalised.”

Malema attacked critics who described him as reckless.

"What is reckless about calling for changing property relations to favour the working class and the poor?" he said. "We should be the voice of farm workers, of garbage carriers, of street sweepers, of manufacturing workers, of the unemployed reserves of workers. We should be the voice of all people in informal settlements and underdeveloped areas."

The four-day conference ends on Sunday.

Labels: JULIUS MALEMA, LAND REFORM, SOUTH AFRICA

posted by MrK @ 6:43 PM