EFF leader Julius Malema says it is ironic that President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced plans to deal with organised crime during his state of the nation address when his own political party, the ANC, is a criminal syndicate.
Malema used his Sona debate to lambaste Ramaphosa’s speech delivered on Thursday last week saying even the deployment of the army to combat gangerism and illegal mining was an admission on his part that the police has failed under his stewardship.
Ramaphosa announced on Thursday several measures to deal with all sorts of crime in the country from re-vetting all police leadership, deployment of the military as well as using technology to fight organised crime.
But Malema says all these measures would not help as his political party, the ANC, was the genesis of crime in the country.
“Under your term crime has spiralled out of control, and your deployment of the army is a last resort. You are admitting that you have failed to fight crime. Crime in South Africa is organised, through drug syndicates, protection fee rings, sex trafficking rings and gangs. It has infiltrated all forms of government, and putting guns in the streets alone will not resolve this crisis,” said Malema.
“Mr President, the rot in our criminal justice system begins with your political party, which has factionalised law enforcement and intelligence on the basis of who emerges in your conferences. The biggest syndicate is the political party you are leading Mr. President.”
He said the EFF, however, has no other choice but to back Ramaphosa’s decision to deploy the army to the streets of especially Gauteng because there was no adequate policing.
“The people of Gauteng have been terrorised for too long by these so-called Zama Zama’s, and on the deployment of the army we have no choice but to support you, because you have destroyed law enforcement capacity,” he said.
“Our concern is how do you deploy a military which has been crippled by austerity measures, to fight crime? Because we know that our military is under-trained and under-resourced, and has been humiliated in war zones abroad, how do you intend to ensure they can fight crime domestically?”
Under your term crime has spiralled out of control, and your deployment of the army is a last resort. You are admitting that you have failed to fight crime.
— Julius Malema, EFF leader
Malema said as much as the army was likely to help in fighting crime, there were more measures that were needed if the country was to succeed.
“Additionally, we have warned you before that the army is combat-trained, and is not trained to enforce laws on civilians. The scale of crime in our country cannot be dealt with by the army alone, because crime is a national crisis and a social crisis,” said Malema.
“If you do not resolve the challenges of unemployment, the challenge of alcohol and substance abuse and the high-dropout rates of the youth from schools, then crime will be a permanent feature in our society.”
On the economic front, Malema said the seventh administration which is a government of national unity had failed to grow the economy or strengthen the currency.
This was despite announcement that the economy was growing and the rand had strengthened slightly against the US dollar with the unemployment rate dropping to levels seen just before the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Mr President, subjectively this government has done nothing to grow this economy or to strengthen our currency. Let us take this opportunity to remind you of your own commitments. Last year on this same platform, you committed to grow the economy by 3% through infrastructure investment, structural reforms and inclusive growth and employment,” said Malema.
“You now no longer speak of this figure, and National Treasury itself predicts economic growth at 1.5%, and will most likely revise this projection down as the year progresses because that is their tradition. You speak of the achievement of a budget surplus as a positive economic indicator, but it is more of an indication that you are implementing austerity and spending less on serving the needs of the country. Why would you be proud of a budget surplus in a country with massive unemployment, collapsing municipal infrastructure and poverty which is leading to death of children in the Eastern Cape?”
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