EFF's motion to rename Cape Town International Airport in six quotes

There were heated exchanges in parliament in Cape Town on Tuesday after an EFF proposal to include late struggle icon Winnie Madikizela-Mandela’s name for consideration in the renaming of Cape Town International Airport. 

Here is a wrap of EFF leader Julius Malema’s speech:

Shaping history

“We are calling for the restoration of equality in how we shape the memory of where we come from, the heroes and heroines that confronted the difficult and impossible conditions in order to shine the sun of freedom on our dark and painful past.”

Female heroes treated as insignificant

“Celebration after celebration, we have left the patriarchal memory and history uninterrupted. We have become complicit in the false idea that only men led in the revolution. From films to artworks, the image of women is marginalised.”

Women, too, were struggle stalwarts

“If you ask who was tortured, killed and detained without tria, if you ask who established the self-defence unit and built organs of people’s power to change the system, the answer, the image and the memory will be rooted in men. It is always about men. Let us fight the idea that only men liberated us as people.”

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, an icon

“She’s truly the name South Africans relate to from all walks of life. This is not a mistake. Mama grew to become a formidable, independent, wise and courageous leader in her own right. Many people across the world were inspired by her ability to withstand the violence and brutality of the system, so much that they joined in the anti-apartheid movement.”

She fought proudly

“She was the only leader during the ’80s to wear the band colours and flag of the liberation. She alone would shout ‘Viva ANC’ when this invited imprisonment. She was placed under house arrest, banished from her home.”

We can never repay her

“There is no currency under the sun that could ever repay her contribution to our freedom. This is not to repay her, but to inspire ourselves into accepting the already demonstrated truth, that women have led us, liberated us through gallant fighters and warriors in the struggle.”