Politicians From South Africa

"Let me draw your attention to Mzilikazi, when he fell upon us, murdering and pillaging – did he benefit from it, or suffer harm? Was he able to remain in his country, or did he have to flee? Let me draw your attention to our negotiations with Dingane, who in his demeanour had the likeness of a sheep, but in his heart was a ravaging wolf. How did it work out for him? Did he benefit, or suffer harm?"

"The people who have now taken power in the name of the ANC are working very hard to destroy the legacy of Mandela, to destroy the constitution that we achieved. And it calls upon us now that to take a stand to say no, but we cannot accept that you destroy our constitutional order."

"We, the so-called Bantu speaking South Africans, came from the North, from the Great Lakes, we over-ran territory here which was occupied by the Khoi and the San. There was no title, we just occupied that land, we were not even the original residents here. The people we call Baroa, the People of the South – Ba boroa, the People of the South, it’s the Khoi, the people we found here."

"We are not going to give you money [while] you’re sitting at home every day doing nothing. We must give you jobs [and] we must give you money, because when you work you develop self-respect and dignity"

"Afrikaans is an African language and has the right to exist, [be] protected and defended, just like all South Africa’s official languages and cultures. We need to come together and tell those who wish to do harm on South Africans that, united, we will successfully pave a path of prosperity for all South Africans and that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black or white, Indian or coloured. And we strive to build a nation that is vibrant, successful and united. Our opponents are stuck in the past, self-entitled, and have fallen back into a routine that ensures that we as a nation do not move forward."

"As quoted in the Graham's Town Journal of February 2, 1837. See also: History of the Emigrant Boers in South Africa, 2nd ed, G.M. Theal, London 1888."

"Helder, waardig en overtuigend was dit betoog, een voorbeeld van bezadigheid en zelfbeheersching, en een treffend bewijs dat Steyn zelfs onder de mees opwindinde omstandigheden zicht zelf volkome meester bleeft"

"We must insure that future generations talk about us as hero's and patriots and not as cowards who gave away our inheritance without a fight. We must endure until the bitter end. I will do so."

"The nation of the Orange Free State stand ready for war in such circumstances where peace cannot be secured with honour, and although we recognize our shortcomings, our nation depend on the power of God to deliver us and secure us a victory. With a deep understanding of what we can expect when we place our trust in the Almighty, our nation will enter the war with courage and will fight until the bitter end to preserve the independence of our beloved fatherland"

"We should steadily and surely strive to this goal, because if we educate the children of South Africa our influence shall reach far and wide, this influence shall bring about a unification and that is undoubtedly the calling of the Orange Free State."

"The Government (Volksraad) of the Orange Free State, which is much smaller than that of the other states, are determined to uplift the standard of education in the Orange Free State to the same level of other wealthier states."

"Let us leave nothing unmoved that will help us to become a independent people, and nothing more will be done than to ensure that our children receive a good education."

"Be careful in always having a good beacon fire, as the signals entirely depend upon it, that the ships may enter the bay in safety"."

"All the trouble began in 1652 when Jan van Riebeeck landed in the Cape."

"And as we are making our position stronger every day, it is to be hoped that they (Khoisan) will feel less inclined to disturb us, provided, however, that a strict watch be kept on everything and we remain on our guard in every direction, continuing with diligence at the fences and other defensive forts..."

"You shall also keep your fires burning if the ships are blown back by contrary winds, but if the ships are foreign or not Dutch (onduitsch) you shall at once extinguish your fire."

"[T]hat our prosperity may never forget God's mercies shown to us, but always keep them in grateful memory."

"Hollanders are not a nation to rob another of its property, but desire to live in friendship with all people, and trade with them."

"God speaks, but always in the voice of the voiceless, the defenceless, the powerless. If the powerful do not hear God in this way, they will not hear God at all."

"There are wars in this world, not because wars are the will of God but because of greed and arrogance, the lust for power and domination. There is hunger not merely because there is lack of food, but because of political and economic policies that foster inequality of the distribution of resources, because of one-sided control of world markets by powerful nations who refuse to enter seriously in the search for a more just, equitable, and sustainable economic order."

"Injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere. As long as one person suffers unjustly, the whole world suffers. The existence of injustice, violence, and exploitation contaminates and diminishes the whole human community."

"There are clear and predictable consequences for the world if human beings continue to rape the earth and plunder its resources; to exploit, oppress, and dominate the weak and the poor for the sake of greed and the hunger for power; to depend on ever-rising levels of violence and ever more lethal instruments of death and destruction in order to secure positions of power and privilege."

"On this occasion, we cannot remain silent in the face of the EFF’s [i.e. Malema's] pretentiousness to know more about the history and politics of Zimbabwe than the Zimbabweans themselves. Even more, the EFF has the audacity to dare teach Zimbabweans, even our head of state about the land question in our country."

"Malema: So these popcorn and mushrooming political parties in Zimbabwe, they will never find friendship in us. They can insult us here from air-conditioned offices of Sandton, we are unshaken. They must stop shouting at us, they must go and fight with their battle in Zimbabwe and win. Even if they've got ground and they are formed on the basis of solid ground in Zim, why are they speaking in Sandton and not Mashonaland or Matabeleland? ... Let them go back and go and fight there. Even when the ANC was underground in exile, we had our internal underground forces fighting for freedom. Fisher: You live in Sandton. Malema: And we have never spoken from ... exile. Let me tell you before you are tjatjarag [i.e. chatty]. This is a building of a revolutionary party, and you know nothing about the revolution. Fisher: So, so they are not welcome in Sandton but you are? Malema: So here you behave or else you jump. [Fisher and others laugh.] Don't laugh. Fisher: You're joking. Malema: Chief, can you get security to remove this thing here. If you are not going to behave ... call security to take you out. This is not a news room this. This is a revolutionary house. And you don't come here with that tendency. Don't come here with that white tendency, not here. ... If you've got a tendency of undermining blacks even while you work, you are in a wrong place ... Fisher: That's rubbish. Malema: ... and you can go out! Fisher: Absolutely rubbish. Malema: Rubbish is what you have covered in that trouser. ... You are a small boy, you can't do anything. ... Bastard! Go out! You bloody agent! ... So we think that we need to ensure that we encourage Zanu PF comrades to engage in peaceful means."

"We are worse [off] than we were during the times of apartheid. We are being killed by our own people. We are being oppressed by our own government. … Every mine has a politician inside. They give them money every month, they call it shares. But it is a protection fee to protect whites against the workers."

"Absolutely, what we need to do is that companies must just surrender 51%. ... They have exploited the wealth of that country [South Africa] for far too long. It is time that the people are now beginning to benefit. Our people don't have money to buy those shares, and they will never have money to buy those shares. ... Under president Mbeki they had 2/3 majority, they could have done anything they wanted. Till today they have not done anything. ... because the ANC did not want to tamper with the economic structure and ... property ownership ... We are going to engage in a very persuasive, peaceful engagement with capital. ... We are meeting captains of the industry. Some of them are beginning to respond to our memorandum. Some are saying, well these are doable proposals. ... We'll not use that [civil disobedience] until that our people are pushed to the limit. ... These people are prepared to give shares to the black elite who are politically connected. ... why not give it to the workers themselves who are ... making this company ... what it is."

"There is nothing wrong with crushing white supremacy. It is wrong to think you’re superior to others on the basis of the colour of your skin ... and what perpetuates that is the economic exclusion of our people. ... If we can’t find the necessary skill‚ let’s go and fetch the old man. ‘Old man‚ you are coming to mentor this young one to produce the best product’ to build a better SA."

"Zuma is standing between us and our enemy. Move out of the way. Zuma must pave the way because they [whites] are the one who stole our land. ... White people are going to return our land the same way Zuma will return our money. White people must never think we have abandoned the land question. We will never abandon it. We are the land, our identity is our land. We are nothing without our land. ... What we do with it is none of your business. Solomon Mahlangu died for this land."

"Zuma ... stands in the way towards acquiring land for our people. That is why we will continue attacking him, ... We are at war with whites who took our land and we now want it back. We want our land and we want our wealth; if you stand in our way we will crush you, ..."

"So black people, you are subjects of white people. Even under ANC, even under the so-called democracy, you are subject, you are servant of white people. No white man will be served by me. I do not serve white masters. ... I am here to disturb the white man's peace. ... The white man has been too comfortable for too long. We are here unashamedly to disturb the white man's peace, because we have never known peace. We don't know what peace looks like. ... They have been swimming in a pool of privilege. They have been enjoying themselves because they always owned our land. We, the rightful owners, our peace was disturbed by white man's arrival here. They committed a black genocide. They killed our people during land dispossession. ... They found peaceful Africans here. They killed them. They slaughtered them like animals. We are not calling for the slaughtering of white people, at least for now. What we are calling for is for peaceful occupation of the land. And we don't owe anyone apology about that. ... Revolution is about making those who are comfortable uncomfortable. ... Revolution is about disturbing the peace of those who are swimming in a peaceful environment through exploitation of the working class. ... Our strategic objective is the defeat of white monopoly capital. And that defeat [...] means the ownership of property must change and be transferred into the hands of the people. Their mines must be nationalized, the banks must be nationalized, the land must be expropriated without compensation. ... But white minority be warned, we will take our land no matter what."

"I am not for reconciliation, I am for justice. There is no reconciliation without justice and justice is the return of land. [...] AfriForum is a boeremag. It’s a group of Afrikaners who still wish for apartheid. They will never see it. Afrikaner boys, die poppe sal dans. The EFF is coming for you boys. Afrikaner boys, the ANC has made you to think this thing is still Orange Free State. This thing is not Orange Free State. This is Free State. When we take over power, Afrikaner males, you will know your place. Just pray, pray to [your] ancestors, pray to Malan, pray to Verwoerd, pray and ask them for EFF not to come into power. Because [if] we come into power, Afrikaner men, this side! This is where you belong, this is how you are going to behave. They must know, these Afrikaner males, they must know, we are not scared of them ideologically, politically and otherwise. We can take each other toe to toe."

"One of the things that we can learn [from] the Cubans is that they are highly politically conscientized. ...they understand what constitute progress and what constitute the enemy. And they have come to appreciate that they are in the situation they are because of the choice they have made, of not wanting to follow what the big brother America says they must do. And they know that if it was not [for the] illegal embargo imposed on them, they were actually going to be a much much more better country. Look at them, they have succeeded, the better education, better healthcare, the illiteracy levels are extreme low, under difficult circumstances. [The] quality of education, the quality of primary healthcare [of some country's without embargoes] is nothing compared to a country [Cuba] which is suffering from a serious economic embargo. So we can learn from the Cubans through their determination, through their appreciation that they are a unique nation, and have chosen their path, and they will lead by their conviction. [Interviewer Bryce-Pease asks Malema about Cuba's socialist-democratic model, lack of human rights, lack of freedom of association or freedom of speech among the opposition, and whether South Africa should take those as lessons.] Malema: ...if they think that their model works for them I am not the one to impose on them what should be the type of political systems in Cuba. They are the ones who can chose which direction they want to take. [Bryce-Pease: Do you see a model like Cuba existing in South Africa?] Malema: When we can do actually much better, our democratic system is intact, it is working [...] but there are a lot of things to learn from Cuba [for instance] inculcating the history of the revolution in our education system, so that everybody else is conscientized... Of course there will be some few elements who are not happy. ... [Castro] is bound to commit mistakes but generally we are more than happy with the type of work he has done for the Cubans and for the Africans as well, having contributed to the decolonization of Africa and the defeat of apartheid in southern Africa..."

"We all know that the Dutch gangsters arrived here and took our land by force. And the struggle has since been about the return of the land to the hands of rightful owners. ... Yet those who went to negotiate for our people during the [Codesa] negotiations sold out this fundamental principle, which constituted the struggle against colonialism."

"Victory will only be victory if the land is restored in the hands of rightful owners. And rightful owners unashamedly is black people. No white person is a rightful owner of the land here in South Africa and in the whole of the African continent. This is our continent, it belongs to us."

"The rejection of other Africans is a self-rejection, it is a self-hatred, it's because you don't know who you are. If you know who you are you will never reject people from DRC, you will never reject people from Nigeria, you will never reject people from Ghana, you will never reject people from Zimbabwe, because if you [ap]praise your history, your are actually Zimbabwean, if you [ap]praise your history, you are actually Nigerian. That is what makes us African. That is the beauty of Africa, we share history, we share culture, and all of that. Civilization started here."

"We also want to call upon our fellow Indians here in Natal to respect Africans. They are ill-treating them worse than Afrikaners will do. We don’t want that to continue here in Natal. This is not anti-Indian statement, it is the truth. Indians who own shops don't pay our people, but they give them food parcels. They must be paid a minimum wage. We're not going to nurse feelings here."

"If you don't own a piece of land, you're a coward."

"I heard that these whites are coming to march again, they will announce a new date. I’m thinking national chair we must organise a counter-march and meet them half way. We cannot allow white people to do as they wish in this country, like they’re doing in Palestine. Let them announce the day they’re coming back. Let us meet them toe to toe, let us teach them who owns South Africa. We cannot be harassed in our own country during apartheid and be harassed in our own country during a democratic dispensation by a nonsense Afrikaner community. It must come to an end, let us meet them toe to toe."

"Every land in South Africa should be expropriated without compensation and it will be under the state. The state should be the custodian of the land. ... No one is going to lose his or her house, no one is going to lose his or her flat, no one is going to lose his or her factory or industry. All we are saying is they will not have the ownership of the land."

"Chinese are like Indians. They think they're close to whiteness. When they practice racism they even become worse than whites. There are even Blacks who mimic whiteness. All of this needs to be confronted."

"I know for a fact that Chinese are taking over strategic sectors in Africa. Their ownership is mounting up and [is] even almost worse than white domination."

"We have taken a decision that we are going to remove the mayor of PE. Why? Why not [mayor of DA-led Johannesburg] Mashaba, why not Solly [mayor of DA-led Tshwane]? Because the mayor of DA in PE is a white man. So, these people, when you want to hit them hard – go after a white man. They feel a terrible pain, because you have touched a white man. Not because Mashaba and Solly will not be touched, they will be touched, don't worry. But we are starting with this whiteness. We are cutting the throat of whiteness. Trollip will not be a mayor after the 6th of April, if they give us that date."

"It didn’t end there [with genocide]. They passed law after law‚ taking land from our people. Yet investors never left the country. When they passed the Land Act of 1913‚ investors never left the country. Investors came into the country."

"All white people who are voting DA, who are angry with what we are going to do in PE, who have insulted us since we announced this decision, and mobilised some of your people in the media, to insult us and say all of this, all of you combined can go to hell! We don't care about you. We don't care about you. We don’t care about White feelings."

"...any farm, on which a bond is registered after December 2017, will not be paid by our government. The bond system is anyway a criminal syndicate, ... We have no respect for banks, because they are run by criminals."

"The Zulu king [Zwelithini] must stop these threats of violence. We are not scared. I am scared of no one. No amount of violence can scare me because some of us are surprised that we are still alive today. ... We want every Zulu-speaking person to get a piece of land. If the king wants to give land through the Ingonyama Trust, he must convince the EFF and the government."

"A racist country like Australia says: ‘The white farmers are being killed in South Africa.’ We are not killing them. ... If they want to go, they must go. They must leave the keys to their tractors because we want to work the land, they must leave the keys to their houses because we want to stay in those houses. They must leave everything they did not come here with in South Africa and go to Australia. ... White farmers are the architect of their own misfortune. ... Don’t make noise, because you will irritate us. Go to Australia. It is only racists who went to Australia when Mandela got out of prison. It is only racists who went to Australia when 1994 came. It is the racists again who are going back to Australia. ... They are rich here because they are exploiting black people. There is no black person to be exploited in Australia, they are going to be poor. ... They will come back here with their tail between their legs. We will hire them because we will be the owners of their farms when they come back to South Africa. As to what we are going to do with the land, it’s our business, it’s none of your business."

"Our people are still staying in the same houses that were given to them by apartheid. Our people still stay in the shacks. They came and abandoned you here. They have forgotten about you. They are going to come back next year during elections and say ‘no, you must remember Nelson Mandela, this is the party of Mandela, and we have come a long way with the ANC’. Mandela is no more. He is dead, with his party."

"We’re a very angry society, bad things have happened to us and many people don’t take that into consideration, especially the people who think that they’ve arrived. They forget the pain we have gone through as black people. That anger shows itself from time to time. In the EFF, we try and control it."

"We have instructed our attorneys to appeal [the judgment]. Not even the courts should be allowed to silence the truth, also if that truth is against the Thuma Mina group of the ruling elite."