The Economic Freedom Fighters is demanding that businessman Johann Rupert discloses the amount of properties he owns and how the properties were acquired.
The demand was made during a march to one of Rupert’s properties at Leopard’s Creek in Malelane, Mpumalanga.
The march was part of the EFF’s pickets at Rupert Farms. Other demands include equitable redistribution of all land in private holdings without compensation and independently audited tax records of Rupert.
EFF Deputy leader Floyd Shivambu led the Mpumalanga leg of the pickets.
Supporters braved the Lowveld sun and walked for about a kilometre to hand over a memorandum of demands to the privately-owned establishment of Leopard Creek on the bank of the Crocodile River in Malelane.
The party made a number of demands that include equitable redistribution of all land in private holdings without compensation. Shivambu says the majority of South Africans also need to participate and benefit from the country’s economy.
“We are giving these people only 14 days to respond to all our demands. It cannot be that we have got huge numbers of people here in South Africa. People that do not have does not that anything bad you have got one individual who owns everything. Who owns the land, who owns everything and is using their financial muscle to even buy things from government.”
Meanwhile, residents of Riverside farm also owned by the Rupert family have accused the family of destroying the graves of their relatives. The Chairperson of the Riverside Graves Beneficiaries Committee Samuel Lukhele says they are unable to perform rituals for their departed relatives.
“As we speak, the people who have buried their loved ones at Leopard Creek, want to perform rituals on those graves, but they are told there are no graves. They say if we want to do that we must provide proof that we have graves there, which is unreasonable.”
Shivambu says the party won’t rest until the majority of South Africans are economically liberated and their dignity restored.
“We’re not like controlled by white monopoly capital. We are a different generation that is willing to go to the forefront to reclaim our land so that we can give you a proper future to the coming generations”
A similar march was held in Stellenbosch, Western Cape.
Malema addresses supporters outside Remgro offices in Stellenbosch:
Earlier EFF leader Julius Malema led a protest march to Remgro Offices belonging to the tobacco and luxury goods magnate in Stellenbosch in Cape Town.
The party alleges that Rupert is a major beneficiary of the land which was dispossessed from Africans by his forefathers when they arrived on the South African shores on this day, 6 April 1652.
[In Pictures]: Azania in Kayamnandi, an area established by the EFF through land occupation.
Kayamnandi is under one of the richest municipalities in South Africa (Stellenbosch).
The Rupert pass these communities everyday without shame, while they continue to amass wealth. pic.twitter.com/u7OLTHQbEI
— Economic Freedom Fighters (@EFFSouthAfrica) April 6, 2022
