Land, Mugabe and the state of SA - six fire quotes Malema gave us in 2019

EFF leader Julius Malema has been at the forefront when it comes to speaking up about issues, including land expropriation without compensation, the state of South African politics and former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe.

Here are seven fire quotes he gave us this year:

On coalition with the DA in Joburg

“Why should we always support a white man? To expect us to be reliable voting partners of a white DA? That time it was easy to talk to Mmusi Maimane, but now to go and talk to Helen [Zille]? If not Helen it is [John] Steenhuisen? We can't understand each other. It's a problem.”

Cyril Ramaphosa and Pravin Gordhan 'failed SA'

“This problem our country is facing is not of our own making. Two people you must blame, Cyril and Pravin, your favourites, they can't resolve unemployment, they can't resolve the economy and SOEs and the situation is becoming worse.”

On land 

“We must also discuss how do we use communication to attain socialism in our lifetime. Central to that is the land ownership. How can we be socialists without the land? We will be assessing if the land occupation strategy has been working and if we should proceed with it.”

Mugabe was a hero

“Many want to tell us not to celebrate president Mugabe, that we must speak badly of him, even in his death. There are imperialists and racists today who want their heroes to be our heroes, and their enemies to be our enemies.”

On xenophobia 

“You are also foreigners here because you do not own the country. You are visitors because you are marching from hostels beating up people that they must leave SA, yet you rent in a hostel where you can also be chased out. You are defending a white man's property. This SA is owned by the white man.”

Public protector defence force 

“We will defend Busisiwe Mkhwebane. That is our position because the reasons to remove her are not constitutional. You cannot remove a person because she ruled against your favourites. The next one will do the same and therefore we'll be permanent removers.”