Malema envisions white domestic workers

Suspended ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema wants to see white domestic workers in South Africa in the next 10 years.

Currently, whites controlled everything from the means of production and mines to banks and labour, he told a crowd in Thaba Nchu, in the Free State, on Friday.

"That must change. We want to find in the next 10 years white domestic workers," he said to deafening applause from locals who packed the hall of Moroka High School.

He said the youth league's call for "economic freedom" should not be viewed as a way of excluding whites.

"We never said they must be sent to sea. We just want to share the cake."

He said he was in politics because of the poor, particularly domestic workers.

Malema spoke of black people's struggles, some of whom converted their kitchens into bedrooms at night, shack dwellers who never celebrated when it rained because the structures leaked and those who barely had anything to eat at home.

Malema, who bought a house in Sandton, Johannesburg, for R3- million and was rebuilding it for R8.5-million, said he did not have to stay in a squatter camp to know the struggles people there faced.

"I am a child of a domestic worker."

He said the history of the ANC was to fight for "economic freedom" and that President Jacob Zuma should, in his January 8 address, speak about providing houses, water and sanitation.

"I am not in the struggle for a position. That is why we don't care whether we are suspended or not," he said.

Malema and five other top ANCYL officials were suspended from the party in November last year for bringing the ANC into disrepute and sowing division in its ranks.