No white person will be killed for land, and that is what Winnie Madikizela-Mandela would have wanted, Julius Malema said. Addressing a memorial service for the struggle stalwart, hosted by the EFF in Brandfort on Wednesday, Malema said Madikizela-Mandela did not want to "drive white people into the sea".
In an Eyewitness News (EWN) recording, Malema said Madikizela-Mandela said the transfer of land should happen "using the political power you have" and not with bloodshed.
"Mama wanted the land. And Mama said, she doesn't want the madness of driving white people into the sea. We say that all the time as the EFF, but it doesn't suit the narrative of those who own the media. We are being projected as people who don't want white people. We want white people. There is no problem with white people... we will be an ugly nation without white people. We complement one another. That's what makes us a unique nation."
He said the party's call for land reform was not being reported responsibly.
"Our demand for land is not driving whites to the sea. All we are saying to white people is, share the land. And because we are in the majority, we shall own a bigger portion, and you in the minority, we shall give you a space... We cannot be allocated small pieces of land by white people. Not the other way around.
"We are not fighting white people. We are having a robust debate as a country. And I'm worried that our journalists don't seem to be writing very well about this issue. There is a narrative out there that we want to commit a white genocide. Those are the people who can't counter the land question issue with facts," he said.
Malema said no white person had ever been killed over land and that the party was committed to ensuring this did not happen in the future.
"No white man has been killed because of the land," he said, adding that not even Eugene Terreblanche, "the most racist man", was killed because of land.
"They killed him because he was molesting young people on the farms, there, and not paying them their salaries."
"There is no case anywhere in South Africa of any white person killed because people wanted the land. There is no case anywhere in South Africa of any white person forced out of his own property. Not even by the EFF. What we did as the EFF was to occupy the unoccupied land. We are passing time while waiting for the real thing. And we are going to do so without killing any white person.
"There will never be blood. That's what Mama told us. You must fight in such a way that you use the political power that you have to transfer land to the hands of the people. I stand here, at the memorial service of Winnie Mandela to commit, that there will never be a white person killed because of the land."
According to The Citizen, Malema accused government of protecting apartheid symbols but failing to protect Madikizela-Mandela's Brandfort house.
"They could not protect the house that housed their own‚ yet they protect the statue of Paul Kruger [on Church Square in Pretoria]‚ yet they protect everything else that reminds us of apartheid. They failed to protect their own‚ yet they protect the murderers who killed the people who fought for our democracy," he reportedly said.
He added that Madikizela-Mandela was better than the government of the ANC, as she had managed to uplift the Brandfort community when she lived there, but the government had not.
According to News24, he said: "An individual, who was banned, who was not supposed to interact with anyone and was watched 24 hours [a day] by the killing machine. But she still provided a clinic. Today, you have got a government which is not threatened by anything, but it cannot give anything better than what Winnie Mandela gave the people of Brandfort.
"What a shame to the ANC government. An individual can provide a clinic, the government comes and provides a clinic worse than the clinic provided by an individual.
"Winnie Mandela is better than the government of the ANC combined."