The president told EFF leaders that “respect” would move the country forward. (Photo: Courtesy of PresidencyZA)
President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday condemned Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema for suggesting he had betrayed them during the liberation struggle, saying the party's leadership needed to learn the lessons of history.
As he finished his response to the debate on his opening speech in Parliament, President Ramaphosa told President Malema to learn to play balls and not people in political debates.
“You all have spent a lot of time deceiving who I am as a person. The key to building this country is to hit the ball of development,” he said.
Malema on Friday repeated his claim that while his ANC comrades were in exile or imprisoned, President Ramaphosa was “insulated from any arrest or harassment imposed by the apartheid system”.
Malema also questioned how he became a founding leader of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) “without even being a miner” and how he came to play a central role in negotiating the end of apartheid and the introduction of democracy.
“This explains why there have been so many compromises and capitulations and we have ended up in a situation where economic power remains in the hands of the white minority,” Malema said.
“Without black allies like Ramaphosa, apartheid would not have lasted a day,” said Jacob Zuma, leader of the new official opposition party, Mkhonto weSizwe (MK).
The EFF and MK parties formalised their alliance last week. Both parties have been excluded from Ramaphosa's broader governing coalition, which they have characterised as a regressive pact with the Democratic Alliance.
President Ramaphosa was detained twice in the 1970s.
On Monday, he urged Malema to read about the miners' movement and speak to survivors of strikes in the 1980s that brought the mining sector to a halt.
“I want to speak to the many members of NUM who came together to form the National Union of Mineworkers on 2 December 1982. When they formed the union they said they would build a shield and a spear that would improve the lives of miners and that is exactly what they did,” President Ramaphosa said.
“Five years after they were formed, they embarked on a 21-day strike and brought the entire mining industry in the country to a halt. Call it a treasonous stance.”
He then asked Malema, who was born in 1981, in Afrikaans where he stood in the struggle.
“What was it?”
EFF judges responded by chanting “Marikana” – a reference to President Ramaphosa, who as non-executive director of mining company Lonmin, sending an email urging “synchronous action” to deal with wildcat strikes just days before 34 mineworkers were shot dead by police.
President Ramaphosa told Sepedi he wanted to coach President Malema on his political past.
“You and I need to make time to sit down together and talk about politics, especially the politics of the past. I didn't realise you didn't understand so much. I can see you're blind to the politics of the past,” he said.
“You know that just over two years ago you stood here and swore at me, and you swore at my father as an insult to the fact that he was a police officer. And yes, I am proud to say that I was the son of a police officer, the son of a very good police officer.”
Turning to Chivenda, he added: “When we show respect for one another, that will be one of the things that will move our country forward. What you have said here is not going to move the country forward.”
The president's response to Malema was not included in his prepared speech, in which he said parties in the ruling coalition recognised they had to work together across political lines to grow the economy, create jobs and eradicate poverty.
“The unity we are building will give us courage and become our greatest strength. It's time to get South Africa working again,” the president said.
“We must demonstrate through our words and actions that this is not a time of temporary convenience, but a time for a government of national unity.”
President Ramaphosa repeated the metaphor he used in his speech last Thursday about a group of weaverbirds rebuilding South Africa.
“We need weavers, not vultures,” he said.