Trollip’s days are numbered – Malema

EFF leader Julius Malema used a land expropriation rally in George in the Southern Cape to warn the DA that Nelson Mandela Bay mayor Athol Trollip’s days were numbered.

“Whatever the EFF pronounces happens. We are saying Athol Trollip must go and he will be gone,” Malema said at the rally, which was attended by thousands of supporters at the Thembalethu Stadium yesterday.

“Mmusi Maimane now says the child grants must double. We said this in 2014 and everyone said we were mad. Now that the DA says it, no one is criticising the party’s plagiarism or saying the source of this was the EFF.

“We fought for minimum wages and now everyone agrees. We demanded free education and look what has happened now, our children have access to free learning,” Malema said.

About land expropriation without compensation, Malema said that yesterday marked a very important day in South Africa’s history.

“Today, more than 360 years ago is when our troubles started, the day Jan van Riebeeck arrived here.”

Malema explained that April 6 1652 signalled a time when “colonisers” deemed title deeds or paper more important than people.

“They saw that the indigenous people did not have title deeds to the land they occupied and therefore believed that they had no rights to the land,” Malema said.

Had the approach been different, he claimed, the people of the period would have accommodated the Europeans.

He further said the EFF was fighting for land expropriation without compensation because many South Africans were unemployed, not because they were uneducated, but because they did not have land.
“With land ownership comes respect. No one respects a hobo on the street, whether he is black or white, and the reason for that is because he does not own land.”

He said land ownership should reflect the demographics of South Africa.

“Currently, 72% of land in South Africa is in the hands of the white minority, 15% in coloured hands, 5% in Indian hands and only 4% in the African majority’s hands.”

Malema said only when the reverse became a reality would there be peace.

He said those who were now attempting to occupy land were being arrested and shot.

“They must not stop. Those who are trying to stop them will tire.”

Malema used Soweto as an example of this.

“Soweto was not given to the people. It was taken by force. They too occupied what today is the biggest township in South Africa, by force, and it has since produced some of the biggest icons in the country.”

The gathering in Thembalethu in George follows a march through the Garden Route town’s streets on Thursday during which supporters demanded better healthcare for the poor, among other things.

“We are 23 years into our democracy, yet the government fails to deliver the most basic of services like healthcare and education.”