EFF says it doesn’t mourn the queen’s death

Hours after the announcement that Queen Elizabeth II had died, the EFF on Thursday issued a statement saying the party was not among those mourning the British royal.

The party used her passing to highlight what it said was her contribution to a tragic period in SA and Africa’s history.

The EFF said in 1795 Britain, under the leadership of the royal family, took control of territory from Batavian control and assumed permanent control of the territory in 1806. That territory later  became known as SA.

“From that moment onwards, native people of this land have never known peace, nor have they ever enjoyed the fruits of the riches of this land, riches which were and still are utilised for the enrichment of the British royal family and those who look like them,” the EFF said in a statement.

Saying that it “noted” her death,  the EFF lambasted the ceremonial head of state of several countries colonised by the UK.

The British monarch died on Thursday at her residence in Balmoral, Scotland.

Her eldest son Charles, 73, immediately became king on her death, the symbolic head of the UK and 14 other realms including Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

Elizabeth ascended to the throne in 1952, reigning for 70 years as a head of an institution built up, sustained and living off a brutal legacy of dehumanisation of millions of people across the world.

“From 1811, when Sir John Cradock declared war against amaXhosa in the Zuurveld in what is now known as the Eastern Cape, until 1906, when the British crushed the Bambatha rebellion, our interaction with Britain under the leadership of the royal family has been one of pain and suffering, of death and dispossession, and of dehumanisation of African people,” said the EFF. 

The party said it remembered how Nxele died in the aftermath of the fifth frontier war, how King Hintsa was “killed like a dog” on May 11 1835 during the sixth frontier war, how his body was mutilated and his head taken to Britain as a trophy.

It said it was also the British royal family who sanctioned the actions of Cecil John Rhodes, who plundered SA, Zimbabwe and Zambia.

“It was the royal family who benefited from the brutal mutilation of the people of Kenya, whose valiant resistance to colonialism invited vile responses from Britain.” 

The EFF said during the queen’s 70-year reign, she never acknowledged the “atrocities” her family inflicted on native people Britain invaded across the world.

“She willingly benefited from the wealth attained from the exploitation and murder of millions of people across the world.”

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