EFF CIC Julius Malema briefs media at Winnie Mandela house in johannesburg, 5 December 2022. Picture: Neil McCartney / The Citizen
Despite being the leader of a party that has described itself as a party for the poor and marginalized, EFF leader Julius Malema was found wanting when said he did not know what a loaf of bread costs in South Africa.
Malema admitted to not being aware of the price of a loaf or bread in an interview with Lester Kiewit on Cape Talk on Monday.
“I would not know how much the price of a loaf of bread is because I am not in a position where I have to go and buy a loaf of bread,” he said.
Malema also raised eyebrows when he said VAT should be removed from basic foods, such as bread. In South Africa, there is already no VAT charge on bread.
“Bread and all of the staple foods – VAT must be removed from that and the government must ensure that those staple foods are accessible to our people,” he said.
A person who called into the show asked Malema what he does with some of his money and influence. “Well I take a lot of kids to school myself personally, I build some of the poor people houses and I try to make sure that we intervene in poverty-stricken families,” the EFF leader said.
Meanwhile, Malema admitted that he lived in both Cape Town and Johannesburg.
He has often been criticised for living a life of opulence while he represented a constituency which is largely made up of poor and middle-class South Africans.
During the show, Malema was also asked about the EFF getting support from the white community in South Africa.
He said the reason it was difficult for the EFF to get support from the white community was because some white people did not want to share the resources at their disposal, which is a problem for the red berets.
“We have not made enough inroads in the white constituency because of its privileged position that when you say ‘we now have to share this’, they are like ‘I am so used to the size of the cake and now I am told that I have to share it with other people’,” Malema said.