IN QUOTES | Malema on SA’s ‘imaginary gates’, vaccines and Eskom

EFF leader Julius Malema lambasted government on Tuesday for its decision to close land borders in December.

He implied that foreign nationals entered SA illegally despite the closures because the gates “are imaginary”.

Malema was reacting to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s state of the nation address (Sona) last week.

This was not the first time Malema criticised the ruling party for closing land borders.

Last month, he said the government should not have closed the land ports of entry to countries like Zimbabwe and Lesotho because Covid-19 had not come from these countries. He said the government should have closed airports instead.

He said closing borders was a xenophobic act by the ruling party.

Ramaphosa had announced that cabinet had elected to close 20 land borders to minimise the spread of Covid-19. The department of home affairs reopened the ports of entry on Monday.

Here are five quotes from Malema’s Sona response:

Eskom

“Your energy plan is a disaster and will not bring about the necessary energy stability needed to develop SA’s economy, despite your commitments that Eskom will not be privatised. What you said during Sona is essentially the gradual privatisation of energy generation and we all know that once again the white capitalist establishment will be the beneficiaries while workers lose their jobs.” 

No to vaccine nationalisation

“Our principle to support Africans who are here and all over the continent and in the diaspora will never be shaken by the so-called ‘put SA first’. If calling for the vaccination of fellow African brothers and sisters means we will lose these seats of parliament, then so be it.”

Reopening the borders 

“You opened the borders yesterday but there was no stampede at the borders. What does that tell you? They were already here because your gates are imaginary. They exist only in your not so big head.”

Basic income grant

“We call on government to extend the provision of the basic income grant for all the unemployed as a permanent solution in SA. We call for the increase of social grants for all people receiving social grants.”

Payment holidays 

“We demand payment holidays for all people owing banks for houses and cars and we demand payment holidays for all people paying rent. The payment holidays must be a national compulsory resolution applied to all the people and not left to the discretion of financial institutions.”

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