South African leader calls for land nationalization and seizures



ANC Youth League President Julius Malema, right, addresses a crowd outside a
Johannesburg court in April. Malema denied that singing the anti-apartheid struggle
song, "Shoot the farmer," incited violence against whites. He is now calling for
seizing land from whites to redistribute to blacks.


"We have demonstrated, through sound political and ideological arguments, that mines in South Africa can be and should be nationalized."


Julius Malema, the ambitious, firebrand leader of the South African ruling party's youth wing, Thursday called for the nationalization of mines and seizure of land without compensation — policies the government has repeatedly ruled out in the past said the Los Angeles Times.

Speaking at the African National Congress Youth League's electoral conference, Malema said the youth league had put nationalization and land seizures on the agenda. He has also pushed bank nationalization in the past.

Malema faces a leadership challenge, but is expected to be reelected and his nationalization drive will probably gather steam in the lead-up to next year's ANC national conference, which sets policies for the party.



Tripartite Alliance: 
ANC with the Congress of South African Trade Unions
(COSATU) and the South African Communist Party (SACP)


"Our calls for mines to be nationalized and land to be expropriated without compensation is currently our most important issue," he told delegates in a 90-minute speech.

Malema, flanked by President Jacob Zuma, said past efforts to redistribute resources from the white minority to the black majority had failed dismally.

"The struggle for land reform and transfer of land is long overdue and should be speeded up to avoid the conflicts that characterize many post-independence African states," he said. "We refuse to continue living like we are in a colony. The only solution available to us now is expropriation without compensation."We have demonstrated, through sound political and ideological arguments, that mines in South Africa can be and should be nationalized," he added.

South Africa currently derives most of its export earnings from mining, including of platinum and gold.

Government officials, such as Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and Mines Minister Susan Shabangu, have taken pains to reassure investors and international markets that nationalization of mines will not happen any time soon.

Malema's economic policies put him closer to Zimbabwe's leader, President Robert Mugabe, who in 2000 ordered seizure of farms from whites without compensation, a policy that has caused the collapse of the nation's agriculture-based economy. Mugabe's government also passed a law in 2008 to force international mining companies to hand over 51% of their assets to Zimbabweans, and in March, firms were ordered to submit plans on how they will meet the requirement.

Malema attacked critics who described him as reckless.

"What is reckless about calling for changing property relations to favor the working class and the poor?" he said. "We should be the voice of farm workers, of garbage carriers, of street sweepers, of manufacturing workers, of the unemployed reserves of workers. We should be the voice of all people in informal settlements and underdeveloped areas."

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