The Commander-in-Chief of the EFF, Julius Malema, told residents of Alexandra that members of the ANC know where the missing R1.6-billion allocated to the Alexandra Renewal Project in 2001 is. The money was meant to go towards infrastructure and housing in the township.

Malema said that former Gauteng premier Paul Mashatile, current Premier David Makhura and Gauteng MEC for Economic Development Lebogang Maile know where “the stolen money” for the people of Alex went.

“Where is the money? They must pay back the money,” said Malema.

And although President Cyril Ramaphosa, who spoke at an ANC rally in Alexandra a few weeks previously, pledged to put R1-million into the township, Malema told the crowd who filled the Sankopano Alexandra Stadium that “it is not true, it is a lie”. The president had already forgotten about them and they should not believe it.

Malema spoke about unused land that “the government” and “white people” had left vacant and didn’t have plans for. According to the EFF leader, “they must give it to our people so that they can have a place called home”.

“We have plans with that land as the EFF,” he said.

Malema continued to press the party’s campaigning around access to land. He told the crowd that the “land comes first before houses” and that “the rest follows”.

This is “so that no one can come after and say you can’t build your house on this land — the land will be yours,” said Malema.

And by owning the land, Malema said, black people “will own the factories”, “workers must have shares in the places that they work”.

“We will work and earn a salary and on top of that salary we will earn dividends,” said Malema.

Malema spoke about “the white people” who “build high walls” around their houses “because they know they are eating alone” rather than sharing with the rest of the country.

He then turned his message to the “black elite who forgot about us” and who will also “regret the day the high walls will fall down”.

Malema then warned that if some people, both black and white, didn’t share in the wealth of the county, they would regret it when it was taken away from them by force.

According to the party leader, the EFF government will make sure that people share in the land and wealth. He joked about how the EFF would “provide electricity that wears a raincoat”, instead of the ANC electricity that disappeared when it rained.

Malema said people “don’t want to be told a lie that there was an illegal connection” as a reason for power outages. Just be honest and say there was no illegal connection, because that is what leadership is, he said.

He went on to highlight the work the EFF had done in the City of Johannesburg through the partnership with Mayor Herman Mashaba. Malema said Pikitup cleaners and municipal workers from Joburg Water and Roads Agency “will be taken in full-time and have a salary increase” when the EFF was in power.

“We are going to look after you. Don’t worry, EFF does not have to be in charge for you to get work,” said Malema. The EFF was already working on the inside to make sure these things happened.

“We have started to eat the elephant (of corruption), little by little, and eventually, we will collapse it. And when that day comes, you will rise as a people,” said Malema to the roaring crowd.

If it were within the powers of the EFF, said Malema, we would arrest those ANC people, starting with Ramaphosa, then David Makhura and Paul Mashatile.

Malema said Ramaphosa did not deserve to be the president, but deserved to be in Sun City prison with Makhura, Lebogang Maile and Mashatile “for eating Alexandra money”.

Malema touched on land evictions and said before he moved people, his government would make sure they built them a place to move into first.

He said he would give them keys to spacious places with a kitchen, a lounge, and a flushing toilet, but most importantly of all, a “two-roomed house”, so that children and parents slept in separate rooms and had privacy.

Malema said the ANC had collapsed the education system “because they don’t want people who are smart and who ask questions”. They “give them grants and don’t want them to know what they are doing”.

“Education, education, education, that is one thing to give to the African child,” said Malema.

The EFF government also planned to increase the child grant, stressing that this did not mean he was calling for “children to have children”. He believed “children must be at school”.

Malema also promised that the elderly must not get less than R3,500 a month in grant money because “old people run African families”. They didn’t play with money, they took care of children by buying them uniforms and shoes, he said.

“There is money in government that is being wasted that can be used to fund the grants,” said Malema.

He spoke about Parliament moving to the Union Buildings, cutting back on ministers’ salaries, and cutting state medical aid and catering at government events as means to cut costs in government.

When speaking on the possibilities of a coalition after the election, Malema said that any party, either the ANC or DA, that was willing to clean up the townships will have met the EFF’s conditions for a coalition.

Malema then encouraged his members to make a statement on 8 May by voting the EFF government into power.

“Go make a decision at the ballot box, and when you are there say ‘it ends today’ and ‘enough is enough’,” said Malema.

After the speech, Malema headed to Bushbuckridge in Mpumalanga for another campaign trail rally. DM