By Thapelo Molefe
Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema says the African National Congress’s (ANC) alliance with the Democratic Alliance (DA) has exposed what he described as the governing party’s embrace of neoliberalism and capitalist governance.
Speaking at the Conference of the Left in Boksburg, Malema said the partnership between the ANC and DA showed that sections of the ANC leadership had abandoned radical economic transformation.
“The alliance between the ANC and the Democratic Alliance was a profound ideological revelation because it demonstrates the extent to which sections of the ANC leadership have become reconciled to neoliberal governance and capitalist management,” Malema said.
The ANC boycotted the conference on Wednesday, labelling it “a coalition of negation” aimed primarily at opposing the ANC.
Malema said that the ANC had become politically defensive as it lost support and legitimacy among working-class communities.
“It is within this context that we agree with the observation advanced by the South African Communist Party that the ANC increasingly interprets all independent political organisation outside of itself as hostility or betrayal,” he said.
Malema told delegates that South Africa’s democratic breakthrough in 1994 had failed to dismantle economic inequality and concentrated ownership.
“Political apartheid formally ended, yet economic apartheid survived through property relations, financial concentration, unequal land ownership and the continued domination of strategic sectors by white private capital,” he said.
He said millions of South Africans remained excluded from meaningful economic participation, with official unemployment above 32% and youth unemployment above 60%.
According to Malema, the country’s social problems, including crime, gender-based violence, drug abuse and community breakdown, were rooted in economic exclusion and inequality.
“The crisis confronting humanity is capitalism functioning exactly as it was designed to function. The system produces abundance for a minority precisely through the organised deprivation of the majority,” he said.
Malema also criticised xenophobia and Afrophobia, warning against blaming migrants for unemployment and failing public services.
“Poor Africans from Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Nigeria, Somalia or elsewhere on the continent are not responsible for unemployment, inequality, or collapsing public services,” he said.
He called for greater unity among left-wing organisations, trade unions and progressive formations, arguing that progressive politics had become weakened by divisions and organisational fragmentation.
“This conference must therefore become more than a symbolic gathering of progressive organisations. It must become the beginning of a serious historical process aimed at reconstructing ideological clarity, organisational discipline, and revolutionary strategy,” he said.
Malema reiterated the EFF’s support for land expropriation without compensation, nationalisation of mines and banks, state-led industrialisation, free education and healthcare, and Pan-African economic development.
He also defended Cuba and Venezuela, saying both countries had resisted imperialist pressure and prioritised social needs over corporate profit.
“The issue has never been democracy. The issue is control over resources, sovereignty and economic direction,” he said.
Malema concluded by urging left-wing movements to rebuild working-class organisation and resist what he described as the growing global dominance of capitalism and right-wing politics.
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