Prominent South African Opposition Figure attends Conference in Kigali
Julius Malema, South African political activist
The renowned South African Opposition figure, Julius Malema is attending the fifth Pan-African Parliament meeting which takes place in Kigali from Monday 22nd October 2018, his Party announced on Monday.
Julius Sello Malema is a Member of Parliament and the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters, a far-left South African political party, which he founded in July 2013
EFF leader Julius Malema is in Rwanda to attend the fifth Pan-African Parliament with the South African delegation.
Speaking in Rwanda, the EFF leader has endorsed the idea of a judicial body ‘with biting teeth’ that can punish corrupt African leaders.
He was interviewed on Monday morning on the sidelines of the gathering about the challenges facing the continent, including corruption and how to support economic growth.
The Citizen (SA) reported that during an Interview Malema expressed his support for a judicial body that would act against corruption in Africa because that would send the message that corruption doesn’t pay.
“We need to ensure we come up with one binding legislature for all African countries to ensure that they comply with anti-corruption programmes.”
He added that a judicial body on the continent would hold leaders accountable.
“Many corrupt individuals on the continent go unpunished and, as a result, people think that corruption pays.”
He blamed corruption for being at the core of African underdevelopment.
Although Malema was generally supportive of free trade agreements in Africa, he said it was understandable that countries would be wary of implementing such reforms. He pointed to the fact that some countries might attempt to abuse such freedom to fraudulently market products from outside Africa, particularly from China, as those they had produced themselves.
Despite this, he said, “I see that many are beginning to change heart and sign, seeing that this would be good for the continent.”
He had earlier described the opening address at the event by Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame as “a wonderful speech with more emphasis on free trade and free movement of persons in our continent”.
“I think it’s a very important message because we need to unite the continent and we can only do that if we move freely, if we move goods freely, if we’ve got one currency and, ultimately, we’ve got one continent under one leadership, with institutions that have got biting teeth – particularly on other countries that are engaged in corrupt activities and violation of human rights.”
In August Malema had called for the continent to develop a shared language.
He suggested Kiswahili would be a good choice. He said the benefit of a widely spoken African language would be part of “decolonising Africa”.
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“We must in generations to come have a language that unites Africans. Like Swahili. If Swahili can be developed and turned into a continental language, then we do away with English. Because that’s what colonisers did … divided us, made sure that we don’t have a common language to communicate among ourselves, and then we use their language to communicate so that they can hear everything we say.”
Malema said it would go some way towards allowing Africa to be an equal competitor to the West … and America [in particular].
