Malema's party stages Johannesburg march over free education

PRETORIA, Tuesday

Hundreds of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) supporters staged a march in Johannesburg on Tuesday for economic transformation and free education.

The march comes a few days after President Jacob Zuma announced there would be no increase in university fees next year, after students went on a nine-day protest.

Over 500 people joined the protest to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the South African Reserve Bank and the Chamber of Mines.

The demonstrators were singing and carrying placards reading “make tax avoidance illegal” and “NFSAS a loan shark”.

EFF leader Julius Malema believes the demands his party was clamouring for were reasonable.

“We do not promise things that are going to lead the economy of South Africa into a disaster. We are a democratic organisation that engages with the private sector and the public and want to bring the best of the best policies which will grow the economy and create jobs for everybody,” he said.

The EFF leader said his party stood firm on its policies, including the nationalisation and expropriation of land.

“Black people remained a conquered nation 20 years into democracy and the EFF says the practical intervention will be the expropriation of land without compensation and ensure that the state becomes the custodian of the land,” Mr Malema said.

NATIONALISATION

He is convinced nationalisation was not about excluding the private sector, but about the state owning a majority, controlling stake in the country’s wealth.

An EFF supporter, Mr Leon Tholwana, said: “It is important to be here in the sense that we are victims of bad governance impacted by bad finance of the country.”

He added that university students had set the tone in the last weeks with their protests.

“We have seen it with students who laid a foundation for us to take action.

“If you look at the Reserve Bank those people who have made money aren’t from this country and we demand change,” he said.