Malema criticises Ramaphosa's US trip as a 'waste of time' during critical budget crisis
EFF leader Julius Malema slams President Ramaphosa’s US visit, calling it ill-timed and harmful to South Africa’s sovereignty amid a national budget crisis and critical parliamentary decisions.
Image: Phando Jikelo/Parliament of SA
ECONOMIC Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema has criticised President Cyril Ramaphosa’s trip to the United States, calling it ill-timed and detrimental to South Africa’s sovereignty.
President Ramaphosa is scheduled to visit the US from Monday to Thursday this week to mend relations between the two countries. On Wednesday, Ramaphosa has a meeting with US President Donald Trump.
However, Malema has denounced the visit, especially as it coincides with a critical period for the country, as Parliament is set to receive the national budget speech for the third time.
The Finance Minister is set to table the budget on Wednesday.
“Once the budget comes for the third time, it means it's a crisis. You cannot leave your country in a crisis and go to America, where you're going to be ill-treated,” Malema said.
Malema dismissed the President’s visit to the US as futile, warning that Ramaphosa may return having compromised fundamental national principles just to curry favour with the West.
“It’s a waste of time. If he wants them to start treating him differently and he's going to beg them to attend the G20, he's going to have to compromise some of the fundamental policies of this country, which we are not prepared to accept. If he does that, he must not come back,” he said.
The EFF leader also accused Ramaphosa of undermining the authority of Parliament by potentially overruling its resolution calling for the closure of the Israel embassy in South Africa.
“You cannot go alone as an executive, overrule the position of Parliament. If he does that, it will be illegal and we're going to fight it.”
Addressing recent claims that 49 white South Africans had fled the country due to violence, Malema called it “fiction” and “drama,” asserting that no such mass exodus has taken place.
“There are no 49 Afrikaners who left South Africa. You all know that it's a fiction, it's drama. America with drama is number one.”
Mocking the sensationalism of such reports, he said: “If those people are farmers, it means there are 49 farms available. Why are we not expropriating them? Because they've abandoned them.”
Malema reiterated that the EFF is not advocating for violence but for equitable land distribution.
“We are not killing white people. We are demanding our land. We are saying let's share this land. Let's all work the land. And if that is a crime, it's a crime we are prepared to commit.”