‘Student activists did not die for politicians to be rich’, Malema says in Youth Day address

EFF leader Julius Malema used his Youth Day speech in Thohoyandou, Limpopo, yesterday to again raise the issue of the criminal charges that have been laid against President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Youth Day was marked as youth unemployment is at more than 66% and the cost of living is rising.

It also takes place as Ramaphosa is under intense scrutiny after former spy boss Arthur Fraser laid criminal charges against him for not reporting the theft of foreign currency at his Phala Phala farm in 2020 and for allegedly covering it up.

Fraser met the Hawks on Wednesday to assist them with their investigation. Ramaphosa has denied any wrongdoing or criminal conduct.

Malema said Parliament was not a place for crooks and, making reference to Ramaphosa, he said those who hide money “in mattresses are not honourable”.

“A law-abiding citizen does not chase after criminals, only gangsters follow each other. That’s what your president did …he went to look for those people. If you are not a gangster, if you are a law-abiding citizen, you will always report the matter to law enforcement.”

Malema said Ramaphosa’s actions had cost him his dignity and the dignity of the office of the president.

“Why is the president using foreign currency and not rands? How did this foreign currency enter SA?

“He did not pay tax and that tax must be used to build roads, clinics and houses. Without tax we are poorer,” Malema alleged.

He said student activists like Tsietsi Mashinini, who was the main student leader of the Soweto Uprising, did not die for politicians to be rich and for people to remain poor.

“Is this what Hector Pieterson died for? He never demanded that a president must have millions of dollars under his bed. They are no longer hiding, they will eat in front of us, yet there are no roads or houses in Vhembe.”

In the Eastern Cape, Ramaphosa, in his Youth Day address, said the apartheid legacy of poverty, unemployment and inequality has, in recent times, been compounded by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, the July 2021 unrest and the devastating floods in KwaZulu-Natal, North West and in the Eastern Cape.

“The fact that millions of young people are not in employment, education or training is the greatest challenge facing our country today. As we rebuild from the pandemic, we therefore remain focused on growing our economy and creating jobs,” Ramaphosa said.

DA leader John Steenhuisen said young South Africans were battling the jobs crisis.

“Never before has the future looked so bleak for young South Africans. Never before has the prospect of finding meaningful work, or leaving school with a useful education, been worse,” Steenhuisen said.

ActionSA president Herman Mashaba said it was important to create a plan to serve young people in any efforts to create a country bursting with opportunity.

“Central to these plans must be the complete overhaul of our education system so that young people are emerging into a job market with the skills and education that makes them suitable to a growing pool of opportunity. We must invest strongly in raising a generation of entrepreneurs and small business owners who can become employers of others and hubs of economic activity,” Mashaba said.

THE MERCURY

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