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EFF leader Julius Malema is not here to serve “white masters” and will continue to call for land occupation – peaceful occupation.
After a brief court appearance in Newcastle Magistrates’ Court today, Malema told supporters that the country was still in the hands of the colonial masters.
“There are still pieces of land in KwaZulu-Natal whose title deeds are owned by the queen of London,” he said.
The Economic Freedom Fighters leader had appeared on charges of contravening the Riotous Assemblies Act of 1956.
The case was postponed until December 7 to give Malema and his legal team time to file their opposition papers at the high court.
The case was set to begin on May 5 2017 once proof was given that the application had been made.
The charges were laid by civil rights group AfriForum, after Malema called on EFF supporters to occupy land in 2014 at the party’s elective conference in Bloemfontein.
Malema said at the conference that: “We are going to occupy the unoccupied land because we need the land. For us to eat‚ we must have the land. For us to work‚ we must have the land ... I come from Seshego. If there is unoccupied land‚ we will go and occupy the land with my branch. You must go and do the same in the branch where you come from.”
Today, he said: “If it means going to prison for telling you to take the land, so be it ... land is everything, without land we are nothing,” as the crowd cheered him on.
Within the crowd of supporters outside court today were several ANC supporters, whom Malema said were not there to support him, but rather to join the fight for land.
“I want to thank my ANC comrades for coming to support the fight for land,” he said, adding that there were supporters within the ANC who knew what to fight for, but that they were with the wrong party.
The EFF leader said he was not here to serve “white masters”.
“I am here to disturb the white man’s peace. They have been swimming in a pool of privilege because we have never owned land,” he said, as he called for peaceful land occupation.
EFF spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi said yesterday that Malema had been charged with an “apartheid-era law” which was used to imprison many liberation fighters including Rivonia triallists.
“This is a direct quotation from the Freedom Charter which state that ‘all shall have the right to occupy land wherever they choose’. In essence Julius Malema is charged for speaking about the Freedom Charter‚” Ndlozi said.
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