/ 8 January 2011

Malema: ‘Nationalisation is the solution’

Malema: 'nationalisation Is The Solution'

ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema called for a programme of nationalisation to eliminate poverty at the 99th ANC anniversary celebrations at the Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane on Saturday.

Malema told a packed stadium that included President Jacob Zuma that the only way to free the country from poverty was to implement a programme of nationalisation.

“Nationalisation is the solution to the problems we are facing,” he said.

Malema took aim at big business, especially white business owners.

“We cannot accept the economy being in the control of white males,” he said.

‘There are problems’
Zuma said in his speech that while the majority of municipal councillors were doing a sterling job, there were still problems.

“We acknowledge that in certain municipalities there are problems,” he said.

Referring to the local government elections expected in May or June, he urged the party to improve its results in municipalities it controlled and in those it did not control.

He said discipline within the ANC had to be maintained and that it was “non-negotiable”.

He reminded the crowd of the resolution on discipline taken at the party’s national general council held in Durban last September.

“Discipline is non-negotiable. It must be enforced without fear or favour,” said Zuma.

Old alliance
On Friday night at a gala dinner of the Progressive Business Forum, Zuma said the party’s alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the South African Communist Party had been a subject of analysis and debate for many years.

“This organisation has never shied away from the workers. If you see us being in alliance with Cosatu it is not something we decided recently. It is an old tradition.”

He said that long before the establishment of Cosatu, former ANC leader Josiah Gumede had spoken about the ANC’s support for workers in 1927 at a conference on imperialism in Brussels.

On Saturday, Umkhonto weSizwe veterans marched into the stadium with a yellow, green and black cake to celebrate the party’s anniversary. – Sapa