IN QUOTES|Julius Malema on the EFF's birthday - 'The party embodies superior logic'

EFF leader Julius Malema delivered a virtual address on Sunday during the opposition party's seventh anniversary commemoration.

His address included detailing the EFF's response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and the impact of the pandemic on the poor.

Here are eight quotes from his speech:

Easing of lockdown

“Our call that only scientific and sound ideas should lead to the reopening of the economy has been proved to be correct. Despite our warning, President Cyril Ramaphosa fell into the trap of the white capitalist establishment, and prematurely reopened schools and the economy. SA’s Covid-19 cases are at more than 400,000, and are now the fifth highest in the world.”

Quarantine sites 

“As a nation, we are unable to produce our own personal protective equipment (PPE) and ventilators. Nurses and doctors are getting infected while the state is renting hotels, venues and resorts to house Covid-19 patients because they are victims of a tender system, and cannot speedily conduct construction work to build hospitals.”

Quality health care for all 

“When we warned the private health care sector to either play a progressive role in fighting the coronavirus or face nationalisation, Ramaphosa giggled. Today our people are fighting each other for oxygen in public hospitals, and health-care workers are dying because of the lack of PPE.”

Inequality in education 

“The apartheid character of our schooling system is exposed as private schools will continue to not be affected. The consequence of this is that the privileged will continue to have an advantage in entering institutions of higher learning and the job market. The rich will be educated while the poor will succumb to substance abuse and neglect.”

A people's party

“There is no-one today who can deny that the young organisation represents the future and embodies superior logic. It is a movement that has inspired our people to have dignity and defend themselves from injustice.”

EFF vs ANC 

“While the ruling party calls on our people to be loyal to them because of the fight against apartheid, the EFF has been able to reveal a better future and offer sustainable solutions.”

Fight against gender-based violence

“It is the women of the EFF who, year in and year out, marched in their thousands in Johannesburg, demanding that there be a review in how police handle cases relating to gender-based violence in SA.”

Government in waiting

“It was the students of the EFF who championed the struggle for free education which the former liberation movement had long abandoned. It was the students of the EFF who achieved the victories trade unions had failed to achieve, and ensured the insourcing of workers, a critical pillar for abolishing the tender system, as enshrined in the cardinal pillars of the EFF.”

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