EFF leader Julius Malema has seemingly walked back on his party’s key cardinal pillar of nationalisation, suggesting that privately owned mines and banks will remain in private hands should the party win South Africa’s 2024 elections.
According to its 2024 manifesto, the EFF has seven cardinal pillars, including “nationalisation of mines, banks and other strategic sectors of the economy, without compensation.”
In the chapter on mining, the manifesto adds, “The EFF government will return the ownership of the mineral wealth of the country to the hands of all the people of South Africa by nationalising the mines by 2028 in line with the minimum commitments made by the people of South Africa in the Founding Manifesto.”
Some have raised concerns that this policy comes with significant risks to the economy, including massive disinvestment or capital flight.
Julius Malema on nationalisation
In an interview on SABC‘s Morning Live show on Monday (4 March), host Sakina Kamwendo asked Malema to clarify how the EFF will implement its nationalisation policy should it win the elections.
“Nationalisation simply means state ownership,” he explained. “So, let FNB be, let Absa be, let Standard Bank be. Let’s establish our own bank and this state-owned bank must be of service to our people and offer them those services with reasonable interest. Nationalisation means that there will be state-owned banks [and] mines.”
Asked how the policy will work with mines that are already in private hands, including shares given to black people as part of transformation policies, the EFF leader said, “Public participation through state ownership does not close private ownership. We’ve got private schools [and] public schools. The ownership of schools by the state has never led to the closure of private schools in South Africa. So, why would the ownership of a mine by the state lead to the closure of private mines? We don’t tamper with that.”
However, the EFF’s manifesto is emphatic that the party’s government will seek to “exercise total or majority ownership of all South African mining assets.”
“The EFF government will propose various mechanisms to forge strategic partnerships and agreements with stakeholders including public-private partnerships, long leases, employee ownership programs and other structures aimed at enhancing the capacity of the state to operate mining operations,” it adds.
1 Comment
Malema us right. Why you push him to what he did not say in the Manifesto. Malema spoken about Establishment of Nationa State Bank. Let the reserve bank die on its own not killed by Malema.