Malema: Palabora miners died because bosses ‘don’t care’
The EFF leader offered his condolences to the families of the six miners who were killed at the Palabora Mining Company on Sunday.
Morning Live’s Sakina Kamwendo interviewing the EFF’s Julius Malema. Picture: EFF Twitter.
In an interview on SABC’s Morning Live with host Sakina Kamwendo on Monday morning, EFF leader Julius Malema offered his condolences to the families of the six miners who were killed after a fire broke out on Sunday.
According to Malema, these deaths are a result of greed on the part of mining bosses.
“We send our condolences to the families of the deceased miners, and we know this is a result of private capital individuals who are interested in profit maximisation and do not care about the lives of people,” he said.
Malema took the tragic deaths of the miners as an opportunity to clarify the EFF’s policy on nationalisation.
“Our solution is that the state own important economic sectors. The immediate solution is the state ensuring … safety. The links of mines to politicians should be abolished because it makes it difficult to regulate the mining sector,” he said.
READ MORE: EFF march: Malema – ‘Mines kill our people’
Moving on to the land question, the leader of the red berets expressed similarly socialist ideals, while at the same time saying he believed King Goodwill Zwelithini must not lose his land.
“The land should be owned by the state, and all these institutions, such as Ingonyama Trust, will be assigned the responsibility of distributing that land to the people,” he said.
Malema acknowledged his role in shifting the narrative on land and pushing the ANC to adopt the policy of expropriation without compensation.
“I am just glad that people are having a conversation on the land question now. That was also one of my greatest moments in the EFF – getting Parliament to pass a motion of the amendment of section 25.”
The commander-in-chief reminded Kamwendo he had been at the forefront of calls for free education.
“I was condemned for insisting young people receive free education. It’s indicative of the level of degeneration in our country; people condemn a good message simply because it comes from a person that they do not like,” he said.
“The most pivotal victory for the EFF was to see the children of the poor working in institutions of higher learning to get an education for free,” Malema continued.
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