Cape Town – Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema has described billionaire businessman Johann Rupert and the Oppenheimer family as the faces of South Africa’s “land criminals”, and said that his party wants a peaceful distribution of land.
Malema said this while addressing his supporters who gathered outside Rupert’s Remgro Limited office block in Stellenbosch after a march on Wednesday.
ALSO READ | EFF to protest outside business tycoon Johann Rupert’s Stellenbosch home
In public notices ahead of the march, the EFF said the march marked the day Jan van Riebeeck arrived on Cape shores in 1652 when he opened Southern Africa for white settlement.
“More than 300 years ago, they arrived here and they took our land… they raped our mothers, they stole the cattle, and now they have settled here, and they call this place their place. But deep down, they know that they have stolen from us.
CIC @julius_s_malema leading the EFF picket in Stellenbosch #EFFLandDay https://t.co/P4f87H52s6
— Economic Freedom Fighters (@EFFSouthAfrica) April 6, 2022
“And whether it is these ones who are living now or not, as long as you are in possession of stolen goods, you are a criminal because they inherited this land. And anyone who says they bought this land, they bought it from the money that was coming from the proceeds of crime.
“They bought it from the money that came from the exploitation of black people. And Johann Rupert and his family and the Oppenheimers and many of these white rich white families in South Africa, they are the face of the land criminal that was committed in this country,” said Malema.
ALSO READ | EFF says wants ‘direct confrontation’ with SA billionaire Johann Rupert… to march to his properties
He claimed that Rupert amassed his wealth from “stealing and exploiting” black people.
“That’s why we are here to say to Rupert, your riches come out of stealing from black people, your riches come from the exploitation of black people.
“Instead you pay them with bottles of wine and alcohol because you have no regard for black people and black dignity,” Malema said.
CIC @Julius_S_Malema running to farms of Johann Rupert Farms.
Johann Rupert honours his ancestor, by disgracing Africans, and subjecting them to an economy he has monopolised which results in what is essentially forced labour on the farms, where our people are paid in alcohol. pic.twitter.com/4K8QlTJI2A
— Economic Freedom Fighters (@EFFSouthAfrica) April 6, 2022
Malema said land and resources should be returned to their rightful owners.
“This youth is here during working hours in their numbers because they are not working and because they have no land to work on. Our poverty is because of lack of ownership of land.”
The EFF handed over a memorandum of demands to representatives of Rupert’s investment holding company.
The party demanded that Rupert must distribute land he privately owned and his entities without compensation.
“You’ve got enough land, Rupert. Start releasing some of it voluntarily now before the land revolution visits you,” Malema warned the businessman.
He added: “All those white people who have a lot of land, properties and wealth; please start sharing it with the people of South Africa because they’re losing patience.”
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