Julius Malema. File photo M&G
Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema on Tuesday responded to harsh criticism from President Cyril Ramaphosa in parliament, saying politics was no place for the faint of heart and doubled down on claims that the head of state had betrayed miners.
Responding to the President's budget voting speech, Malema told President Ramaphosa that his defence of his record as leader of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) on Monday was creating a myth, given the dire conditions still endured by workers in the sector.
“Mineworkers remain the lowest paid workers in South Africa,” Maleme said.
“Mine workers continue to work in poor conditions compared to the amount of wealth they continue to extract from the earth of our country…miners continue to die from workplace accidents.”
“If the history and myths you tell about the NUM and the miners are to be believed, why are the miners still unable to escape the situation they are in?” Malema asked.
He returned to the massacre of 34 miners at Marikana and repeated his claim that President Ramaphosa was complicit in their deaths because, as a non-executive director at Lonmin at the time, he had called their actions in the wage strike criminal and called for “simultaneous action”.
“You did not stand with the workers. You called for simultaneous action and workers were massacred in Marikana by the ANC government,” Malema said.
“If we formed a union for these workers, why are the working conditions the way they are? The union was formed to oppress these workers.”
During the debate on President Ramaphosa's first opening speech to Parliament as leader of the coalition government last week, Malema repeated his claim that he was “insulated from any arrest or harassment by the apartheid system” while his ANC comrades were in exile or imprisoned.
Malema also asked how Ramaphosa became a founding leader of the NUM in 1982 “even though he wasn't a miner” and how he went on to play a central role in negotiating the end of apartheid and the birth of democracy.
“This explains why there have been so many compromises and capitulations and why we've ended up in a situation where economic power remains in the hands of a white minority,” he said.
Responding at Monday's debate, President Ramaphosa said Malema needed a history lesson, rhetorically asking where the 43-year-old politician had been at the height of the anti-apartheid struggle.
In an unscripted speech delivered in four languages, he warned President Malema to “play ball, not figures” in political debates.
But on Tuesday, Malema countered that his comments were fair because in politics character matters more than anything else.
“Mr. President, I want to be very clear that we respect each other and will continue to work together actively,” he said.
“Secondly, Parliament, or political life in general, is not for wimps who will use every word to complain whenever we give them a fair, strong and direct assessment of their political conduct.
“You can't play ball unless you understand your players' strengths and weaknesses.”
He said the EFF was open to political criticism even from “lay” quarters within the ANC.
“We're not crybabies. We fight because we're warriors.”
In both debates in recent days, Malema has led personal attacks on President Ramaphosa, rather than on John Hlophe, leader of the official opposition party, Umkhonto we'Sizwe. The EFF and MK parties formally formed an opposition coalition last week and have been branded a populist threat by President Ramaphosa and members of the ruling coalition.