Video by Kamogelo Moichela
Pretoria - EFF leader Julius Malema says people have nothing to celebrate on Freedom Day, as they still live in squalor and poverty.
He told hundreds of EFF supporters that April 27 was said to be 'Freedom Day' but people were still living on the banks of rivers and in shacks all because they don't own land.
He said the “Lord should protect the people of South Africa”.
"What did we do? Please tell us so that we can go and ask for forgiveness in whatever that we did. Why are we being subjected to permanent misery, pain and permanent suffering of our people? Please protect us," he said.
He said that today was supposed to be a day to celebrate because the people had got the land back.
"Today was supposed to be the day we celebrate because our youth are working, but nothing...and it's painful.
"We were supposed to celebrate that each and every household has got clean running water, but in Hammanskraal is a different kind of situation. What am I going to say to the people of Hammanskraal when I say 'celebrate freedom’, because they'll ask which freedom you are talking about when we don't have water," Malema said.
He also said he was in Hammanskraal attending a funeral and witnessed people being buried on top of each other. When they asked about this, they were told that there is no longer space in the cemeteries.
"Next to that grave site, there is a huge farm. Empty. They say it's a game farm. I therefore asked the people I was travelling with to stop and observe what was happening in the farm. We could not even see a cat and that is where we knew that something was wrong.
"You are landless when you are alive, you are landless even when you die," he said.
He told his supporters that under an EFF government, there would be no such thing.
"Everyone will be allocated a piece of land, and that piece of land will be expropriated from the white man and given to black people to use," he said.
Malema said even when you are dead you still don't have dignity and will not be buried in a dignified manner because they'll bury you on top of another person.
"It will take a brave generation to restore the dignity of our people and that generation is you," he said.
Video: Kamogelo Moichela
He also said that women in South Africa are not safe because they are being attacked and no one is defending them. He said instead of saying ‘let's protect our women’, we should say men should stop attacking them.
kamogelo.moichela@inl.co.za
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