Johannesburg – South African land should be returned to its “rightful owners” because it was “violently stolen”, according to the white EFF secretary of the Tuks “student command team”.
“The land was violently stolen. [There should be] no compensation, it must be given back to the rightful owners,” Jaco Oelofse told Sapa in an interview.
“However, this doesn’t mean white people can’t share in the land, but before we talk about sharing land with white people, let’s focus on getting white people to share the land first.”
He said all white South Africans belonged in the country.
Oelofse has been a member of the Economic Freedom Fighters since October 2013 and a member of the University of Pretoria (Tuks) EFF “student command team” since February.
The 23-year-old philosophy and political science student said: “There is no other alternative than nationalisation.”
EFF leader Julius Malema has said in the past that all land – black- and white-owned – should be transferred to state ownership, without compensation and the state should administer and use land for sustainable development purposes.
The EFF has also in the past said land expropriation should happen without compensation for equal redistribution.
Oelofse said he chose the EFF because there was no other party he could vote for. The EFF offered a better alternative to governance and ensured a more empowered population, he said.
Oelofse said as a Marxist he identified with the EFF. He said since he started studying, his interest in “radical theory” grew.
“I associate with a radical party that has the interest of the downtrodden, poor and voiceless at heart,” said Oelofse.
“As a gay person I also believe the EFF is the right party, they have by far the most progressive policy on gender and sexuality. The EFF fights for the equal treatment of all, we can’t exclude any groups who occupy the margins of society.”
EFF ‘sees the root of the problem’
He said apart from the EFF, there was no other student society openly fighting white supremacy, patriarchy, sexism and homophobia with such “radical ambition”.
Oelofse said the EFF saw the root of the problem and not just the surface issue, which was why they were not always popular. They made people uncomfortable when they had to face the radical truth.
When he joined the EFF, Oelofse said his membership was accepted with “open arms” and although he “agrees to disagree” with some friends and family, his parents had supported his political stance.
The university held student council elections on Wednesday.
The EFF Tuks team secured the deputy president position in Wednesday’s elections. He said it was good for an organisation that had only been on campus since February.
However, the EFF was not completely satisfied with the results, because it could not accept AfriForum’s victory over the transformation portfolio.
SA ‘needs Malema’
He said the EFF was generally well received on campus and students approached them to join.
“We brought a spark of radical politics to Tuks.”
However, there were students who did not like to see them, but Oelofse shrugged off remarks made.
“[On Wednesday] a group of white male students called me a blood-traitor and “moffie”. Not very original, I know, but they tried.”
He had not yet met EFF leader Julius Malema but would like to.
“The media is effective in demonising a strong black voice. I think he is an excellent leader and is exactly the type of leader this country needs,” said Oelofse.
“He knows politics, he is a great orator and what I like about him is that he understands that the truth is radical, he speaks the truth.”
SAPA
The Guardian 