BLF rejects Tito’s budget in toto

Posted on February 27, 2020February 27, 2020 by Black First Land First

Minister of Finance, Tito Mboweni, delivers his budget speech in parliament yesterday. Image: Sunday Times

The budget speech delivered by the Minister of Finance, Tito Mboweni, is nothing short of a direct attack on the poor and a brake on national reconstruction. Mboweni gave nuts and bolts to the pro Stellenbosch State of the Nation Address (SONA). This was therefore a Stellenbosch budget.

To pacify the poor, Mboweni threw some crumbs at them with one hand whilst taking it all back with another hand. What is the use of raising social grants but taking away the food of children by cutting the budget for the school feeding scheme? The burden to feed the child will invariably go to the grandparents and thereby erode even the nominal increases announced.

The fact that the Stellenbosch budget was approved by the top three political parties in parliament, shows that Stellenbosch is indeed in charge.

The Stellenbosch budget attack on social expenditure is evil. Mboweni will take away money from education, healthcare, and the municipalities. This means suffering for the poor.

Mboweni has also unleashed the destruction of the State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) to accelerate the privatization of these entities. The allocation to Eskom is intended to fund the independent power producers (IPPs) which are empowered to take over from Eskom and sell directly to the public, thereby making electricity unaffordable for the ordinary people. This is treasonous and must not be pardoned, even after this regime has been moved from power. The same goes for the allocation for the South African Airways (SAA) – this is taking money from building hospitals and giving it to the friends of Coleman Andrews who bankrupted the SAA.

The proposals regarding the State Bank and the Sovereign Wealth Fund make no difference in a neoliberal policy environment. The Public Investment Corporation (PIC) is an existing wealth fund but it empowers white capital. It’s shocking to hear that money for the Sovereign Wealth Fund will come from privatisation.

The State Bank annouced by Mboweni is an irrelevant red herring in the environment where existing state banks are being destroyed. The Land Bank is underfunded and has just been thrown to the vulturous rating agencies. The same situation applies to the Postbank, and Ithala Bank – to name a few. Furthermore, government is selling its 50% share equity in the African Bank after a massive bail out on its part. In other words, government already owns 50% of a commercial bank. Black First Land First (BLF) rejects the state bank of Stellenbosch which will not give blacks interest free loans.

The budget speech has inadvertently revealed how the Stellenbosch parliament functions. The Democratic Alliance (DA) sets the policy agenda, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) provides a left cover for the DA’s right wing policies, and the African National Congress (ANC) implements those policies.

BLF rejects the budget speech in its entirety. We call on the poor and workers to demand a pro people budget.

Issued by Black First Land First, National Coordinating Committee of (BLF NCC)

27 February 2020

Contact Details

Black First Land First Mail: [email protected]

Zanele Lwana
(BLF Deputy President)
Cell: +27 79 986 7225

Malema forgets to occupy Eskom

Posted on February 2, 2020February 3, 2020 by Black First Land First

EFF leader Julius Malema. Image credit: IOL

Black First Land First (BLF) notes that Julius Malema, who had promised to occupy Eskom, has characteristically forgotten to do so. Malema made the undertaking, on 16 December 2019 during the elective conference of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) in Nasrec, to occupy the power utility.

“Next year before the end of January we shall occupy the premises of Eskom to demand a reliable supply of electricity to our people”, he said.

We ordinarily wouldn’t bother to comment on Mr Malema’s now well known penchant for inconsistency. His political method is now established as consistency in inconsistency.

Malema had promised to occupy Eskom to address loadshedding. A quixotic answer to a problem created deliberately by white monopoly capital (WMC). Occupation of Eskom would precipitate its crisis to justify privatization.

Here we are just reminding everyone that Malema doesn’t mean what he says. This endangers the future. The black youth are under the wrong impression that Malema is interested in revolutionary change. It’s our revolutionary duty to warn and educate the youth about the dangers of flip flopping.

It’s not the first time that Malema had strategically forgotten to fulfill a promise. He totally forgot to occupy ABSA after organising a 50 000 strong march to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) in 2015. While addressing the Southern African-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Johannesburg in 2015, he announced that EFF would command 3000 people to occupy Absa branches if the bank didn’t indicate how it would fight inequalities in the country; and that a task team has been established to action the bank occupations the next year (2016).

“[We will] occupy Absa, each and every branch of Absa, until we are given a practical programme of action on how the bank is going to intervene to resolve the inequalities in society”, he said

He then jetted off to London and held secret meetings with representatives of British imperialism, like Lord Robin Renwick, and forgot about the ABSA occupation. ABSA was then partly owned by the British banking establishment through Barclays. Instead of occupying ABSA, Malema carried out the instructions he was given by his handlers to hound President Jacob Zuma and the Guptas.

The ABSA amnesia situation was not the only one. In an effort to fundraise, Malema threatened to occupy the illegally obtained International terminal (Fireblade Aviation) which is inside the OR Tambo International Airport and privately owned by the Oppenheimers. Yet again, dolololo occupation of Fireblade.

We remind all that Malema has never ever taken any direct action against WMC. When it’s time to fight WMC, he is hit by amnesia. So we aren’t suprised that he has forgotten yet again. We also remember the Independent Power Producers (IPPs) situation where meetings were held with Patrice Motsepe and Malema’s amnesia was guaranteed. Malema oa lebala.

Issued by Black First Land First, National Coordinating Committee of (BLF NCC)

2 February 2020

Contact Details

Black First Land First Mail: [email protected]

Zanele Lwana
(BLF Deputy President)
Cell: +27 79 986 7225

BLF rejects Ramaphosa’s investment fraud

Posted on October 28, 2018November 15, 2018 by Black First Land First

The presidency of Cyril Ramaphosa is based on selling dreams to the poor, the hungry and the unemployed. Ramaphosa is no better than the pastors who feed the destitute snakes and dog meat. His latest bogus miracle is the so called investment pledges in terms of which white monopoly capital has supposedly committed R290 billion to the economy. Ramaphosa says that from these pledges jobs will flow. Black First Land First (BLF) says, it’s all lies! There will be no jobs and the pledges are bogus because they amount to money obtained from the people in the first place.

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