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(NEWZIMBABWE) Malema leads march against poverty

Malema leads march against poverty
Leading from the front ... Malema leads protest on Thursday
27/10/2011 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter/Agencies

ANC Youth League president Julius Malema led a march of thousands of supporters to South Africa's capital city Pretoria on Thursday night to protest over continuing poverty and joblessness, 17 years after the end of apartheid.

The 40-mile "Economic Freedom" march moved from the Chamber of Mines in Johannesburg's city centre to the Stock Exchange in Sandton before setting out for the Union Buildings, seat of government in Pretoria.

At each institution, Malema handed over manifestos calling for the country's bountiful mines to be nationalised and for business to work with the government to provide better education and more jobs for its young black citizens.

"This is the long march to economic freedom – you are making history here today," he told the crowd, adding later: "To avoid blood on the floor is to respond to our demands."

More than half of South Africans aged 15 to 24 are unemployed and the country has one of the biggest wealth gaps in the world. Eighty per cent of companies on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange are owned by around five per cent of the country's population.

In the petition to the Chamber of Mines, the mining industry body, the ANC Youth League demanded the state take 60 percent control of the country's mines and all mineral processing plants be situated close to the mines.

South Africa, with the world's largest gold reserves and 90 percent of its platinum, is the world's fifth-biggest mining economy.

"The CEO is the face of white capital but he is a brother," Malema said of the chamber's CEO Bheki Sibiya, addressing marchers from the back of a truck. "He is one of our own but works for the wrong people."

Sibiya acknowledged the poverty, unemployment and inequality that persists 17 years after the end of apartheid in South Africa and promised to respond to the petition within five days.

"Comrades, I will engage with all members of the Chamber of Mines and they will receive the letter," he told the crowd.

Police estimated that around 5,000 people were bussed in from around the country to back Malema's call, waving placards and chanting struggle songs. Youth League spokesman Floyd Shivambu said “the expected 5,000 protestors were far exceeded by thousands of many youths, workers, students, and South Africans of all genre.”

“Never before in the world have youth been mobilised and willingly joined in a huge and long distance mass action to demand their rights,” Shivambu said in a statement.

“The mass action confirms that all the economic freedom issues raised by the ANC Youth League are genuine and appeal to an absolute majority of South Africans and progressive forces across the world. This is confirmed by the massive support and solidarity messages the ANC YL received from all over the world.”

The ANC has not endorsed the Youth League’s call for the government to take 60 percent stakes in the mines, with some top officials warning the debate is harming efforts to attract investment and create jobs.

The marchers carried placards reading "90 percent of the economy in the hands of the minority", while another said "Nationalisation: a better life for all". A big banner demanded free education.

"If I was working I wouldn't be here," said Mpho Mokgehle, 28, one of the marshals of the march.

"That's why I want to say to the government we need jobs," she told AFP.

Another youth said he marched to draw attention to the dire state of public services.

"Some of us don't have water, still use the bucket system. We don't have toilets," said unemployed Makhanye Mduduzi, 26.

The crowd passed the Chamber of Mines, on which hung a banner reading: "We agree with you that unemployment is too high, poverty is too high."

Precautions surrounding the march were in many ways more impressive than the protest itself, as police closed roads and nearby schools urged parents to keep their children home.

The Chamber of Mines prepared an evacuation plan for its staff. The stock exchange was surrounded by barricades while a hotel across the street was cordoned off with barbed wire.

The protesters were walking overnight to Pretoria, about 50 kilometres away. They plan to hold a night vigil at a football stadium and then deliver a petition to President Jacob Zuma's office on Friday.

Malema's outspoken rhetoric has strained his ties with the ANC, which is wrapping up a disciplinary process against him after he called for "regime change" in neighbouring Botswana.

While the march addressed very real concerns in South Africa, which has one of the world's biggest gaps between rich and poor, political analyst Dirk Kotze of the University of South Africa said the protest was more about Malema seeking to secure his political future.

His disciplinary hearing is scheduled to wrap up next week, when he could face suspension or even expulsion from the ANC.

"If he can demonstrate that there is real substantial support within the ANC beyond the Youth League, then it will be much more difficult to either suspend his membership or to expel him from the ANC," Kotze said.

"It is for his political future, but he raises important national issues in the process."

Labels: ANC YOUTH LEAGUE, JULIUS MALEMA

posted by MrK @ 3:40 AM