The leader of the EFF, Julius Malema, has warned that violence is inevitable in South Africa to change the status quo because those hoarding the country’s wealth are seemingly resisting and happily excluding black people from the mainstream economy. 

Malema says in such scenarios where those who accumulated their wealth through colonial exploitation do not change, this route cannot be avoided.

He repeated this warning on Friday, December 13, while giving a lengthy political report to the Red Berets’ 3rd National People’s Assembly (NPA) at the Nasrec Expo Centre in Johannesburg. 

More than 2 500 EFF members and delegates have gathered at the NPA to elect new leadership and endorse policy proposals. 

Malema used the occasion to attack former President Jacob Zuma and his Unkhonto we Sizwe (MK) Party, accusing them of trying to hijack the black struggle against economic domination and the status quo. 

“Those entitled to the wealth and resources they accumulated through crime and will violently defend their right to exploit and oppress African people. In the face of this arrogance, violence is inevitable; this is what we must coherently and logically explain to our people,” Malema said.

He added that colonialism was born out of African blood and through destroying the African identity.

“Our people being denied education is violence, our people living in shacks is violence, our people working in mines for little wages while enriching global capitalists is violence,” he added. 

In his report, Malema touched on many domestic and international issues, providing his party’s perspective. 

He spoke against the oppressive regime of King Mswati in Eswatini, and reiterated his party’s support for the Palestinian struggle against Israel and Russia’s spirited fight against the NATO-sponsored attacks in Ukraine. 

Malema then turned his guns to Zuma and his MK Party, who he accused of trying to hijack the black unity concept for narrow agendas.

“You, as delegates, must ask yourselves where was this black consciousness and black unity when the Marikana workers were killed? Whose blood nourished the birth of this economic emancipation movement while the so-called new leaders of black unity were sitting as state president and even justified the killing of mineworkers in Marikana who were all, by the way, black. Did the need for black unity not exist when the youth of this country were shot, jailed and killed for demanding free education under the new messiah of black unity?” Malema said in a jab aimed at Zuma.

Still, on Zuma, Malema said they do not regret meeting him in Nkandla over a cup of tea in 2021. He said their visit was solely to convince him to testify before the state capture commission and avoid being jailed, as that would have caused bloodshed. 

He added that the EFF would never associate itself with someone accused of stealing public money or working with factions of other political parties.