Malema calls for all apartheid symbols to be destroyed

22 March 2015 - 13:59 By Sapa
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The statue of General Louis Botha outside parliament. File photo
The statue of General Louis Botha outside parliament. File photo
Image: AFP PHOTO / RODGER BOSCH

"I'm challenging you. Revolution is not a legal activity. You must stop listening to those things like: This is illegal. There's nothing like this," he was quoted as saying.

Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema has called on people to take down all statues that are a reminder of apartheid, the Sunday Independent reported.

"I'm challenging you, the fighters of the Western Cape, that statue of Louis Botha at Parliament, it must go down and how it goes down it's your business. How it goes down, I'm not interested... Make a plan for that statue."

Malema was addressing an EFF Human Rights Day rally in Langa, Cape Town on Saturday.

He said people who despised apartheid and everything it represented had the "duty to remove those symbols".

"Stop being cry babies, you brought down apartheid, you can't fail to bring down the symbols of apartheid. It is your duty as a revolutionary. Take it upon yourself. Prison or no prison, you must be arrested for bringing down Botha."

Malema reportedly said that he had no fear of being arrested for saying what he said and said he did not fear or respect "a rotten government".

Malema also said the statue of Cecil John Rhodes at the University of Cape Town should be crushed.

"There is no discussion. Rhodes must fall," he was quoted as saying.

"If they say it's expensive to bring him down, the masses must crush that statue of Rhodes, it will not be expensive. They can hire our services. We will go and remove it free of charge."

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