Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema says declaring a National Disaster after the floods in KwaZulu-Natal last week, is simply a strategy for government funds to be stolen.
Malema visited the KwaMamsuthu informal settlement in Durban where about 18 people are believed to have died. The party also distributed food parcels to over 500 affected residents and donated R500 000 towards a soup kitchen at a local church.
Residents of the KwaMamsuthu informal settlement, on Quarry Road in Durban, have also called on the government to find them alternative land, as their settlement is near a riverbank and, last week’s torrential rains washed away many of their homes.
Over a hundred people are now taking refuge at a local church.
Malema visited the area to provide aid and reiterated that the EFF has never encouraged people to occupy land that is not safe.
“We don’t occupy unsafe land. We occupy strategic land, which is safe, which is not altered. We’ve never said to our people to occupy rotten land. We’ve never led our people into occupation of a rotten land. So that is refusing to take responsibility and playing a shifting legs to people who are not responsible for this. This settlement is way beyond the ages of the EFF and this was never led by the EFF, this land occupation,” says Malema.
KZN Floods I EFF calls on govt to provide land for those displaced:
Malema added, “They have not been here to check the health condition of the children. But, if you go everywhere else where the bridges have fallen and the roads have been washed away, they’re all there because that’s where there’s a possibility of tenders, because they follow the money, they do not follow the people.”
“We want to be where the people are. We know very well that this government is corrupt, and is going to use this money for the December con-currents this disaster came favourably for them, and they will use this to maximise their vote buying amongst that delegates,” added Malema.
The EFF leader further encouraged private companies and those who wish to donate aid and funds to do so through local NGOs and grassroot organisations. He also called on the government to use this opportunity to enforce land expropriation without compensation for the affected.
EFF visits areas across eThekwini to offer aid to flood victims:
