- Title: South Africa's Malema says more than 60 ANC MPs will turn on Zuma
- Date: 21st July 2017
- Summary: JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA (JULY 20, 2017) (REUTERS) MALEMA TALKING TO JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (English) ECONOMIC FREEDOM FIGHTERS PARTY'S LEADER, JULIUS MALEMA, SAYING: "I'm not talking to opposition MP's (members of parliament), I am talking to ANC (African National Congress) MP's. I am talking to ANC (African National Congress) MP's - I have spoken to more than 60 of them. They've committed, they've asked that this thing (motion of no confidence vote) must be secret, they will deliver it. They are not happy themselves, they are not happy themselves, so don't undermine the secret ballot." (SOUNDBITE) (English) ECONOMIC FREEDOM FIGHTERS PARTY'S LEADER, JULIUS MALEMA, SAYING: "When we speak about the rot, that's what we are pointing to. The country's rotten to a point where the law enforcement has been shut down. Except that it deals with petty crimes, of people who are stealing food in restaurants and shoplifters and all that. But the real things that is eating our country is not being dealt with, which is corruption." MALEMA SPEAKING TO JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (English) ECONOMIC FREEDOM FIGHTERS PARTY'S LEADER, JULIUS MALEMA, SAYING: "Arrest of Zuma is not arrest of individual, it's an arrest of corruption - it starts with him. If you don't arrest Zuma, and you go into talks with Zuma to make a deal that some immunity ... must not be arrested... then you must know that you've institutionalised corruption and once you have institutionalised corruption this country is gone! We must all forget..." MALEMA TALKING (SOUNDBITE) (English) ECONOMIC FREEDOM FIGHTERS PARTY'S LEADER, JULIUS MALEMA, SAYING: "Ordinarily, ourselves and the ANC, we talk the same language. We are parties that represent black people in the main. The most difficult thing which makes us fight is corruption, we cannot... it doesn't matter how ideologically we are aligned. We are not going to use ideological alignment to collapse the country through corruption." MALEMA SPEAKING TO JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (English) ECONOMIC FREEDOM FIGHTERS PARTY'S LEADER, JULIUS MALEMA, SAYING: "We are a democratic country, we are a peaceful country. Put pressure, open a case, put pressure, use parliament to put pressure. The DA (Democratic Alliance) was protesting at the NPA's (National Prosecuting Authority) offices, just to try and put pressure and highlight all of this, with the hope that something will happen. Cyril Ramaphosa says he's fighting corruption, the Communist Party says they are fighting corruption, not a single one of them has opened a case against anyone, yet they claim to fight corruption." (SOUNDBITE) (English) ECONOMIC FREEDOM FIGHTERS PARTY'S LEADER, JULIUS MALEMA, SAYING: "We're not going to leave unutilised land idly, when people are starving of land next to it. And what is even funny enough the 'father' (eds note: refers to white land owner) is the one who was owning the land, when the father died these guys abandoned the land and went to Canada. And then people are staying here, they don't have land, a person left an empty land and went to stay in Canada, that's unfair! And when we talk about it, we are racist we want to do Mugabe (eds note: refers to Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe who permitted violent land seizures from white farmers) - it can't be like that. The people can't just look at an unutilised land and not do anything with it when they've got a purpose with that land."
- Embargoed: 4th August 2017 15:52
- Keywords: Julius Malema Zuma EFF ANC members motion of no confidence South Africa's parliament Economic Freedom Fighters party
- Location: JOHANNESBURG, PRETORIA AND CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA
- City: JOHANNESBURG, PRETORIA AND CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA
- Country: South Africa
- Topics: Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA0026QNV29Z
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: More than 60 ANC members in South Africa's parliament will back a no-confidence vote against President Jacob Zuma if the ballot is secret, the leader of the far-left Economic Freedom Fighters party (EFF), Julius Malema, said on Thursday (July 20).
Malema, a former head of the ANC's Youth League and a firebrand politician known for his colourful language, said in an interview he had received personal commitments that ANC MPs would dump Zuma.
Malema, whose party supports expropriating white-owned land and the nationalisation of mines and banks, said economic misrule under Zuma was deepening apartheid's racial disparities.
Black South Africans make up 80 percent of the 54 million population, yet most of the economy in terms of ownership of land and companies remains in the hands of whites, who account for about 8 percent of the population.
Zuma faces the no-confidence motion on August 8, the ninth time the opposition will have tried to unseat him by peeling off dissidents from the ruling party, whose majority has so far protected him.
But unlike previous attempts, this time the vote may not be open. The Constitutional Court has cleared the way for the Speaker to allow a secret ballot, though it remains unclear she will. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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