Malema warns Ramaphosa Phala Phala scandal ‘will never die’

Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema has sent a stern warning to President Cyril Ramaphosa, saying that as long as the red berets remain in Parliament, the Phala Phala scandal “will never die.”

Malema made the remarks during a joint sitting of the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces on Tuesday afternoon, as MPs debated Ramaphosa’s recent State of the Nation Address (SONA).

The debate will continue on Wednesday at 2pm, with the president expected to reply on Thursday at 2pm.

“Mr President, we warned you eight years ago that the Oppenheimers and the Rupperts would neutralise you, and your legacy would be that you auctioned our country and its strategic assets to the highest bidder. You did not heed our warning,” Malema said.

“You have auctioned our sovereignty to asset management companies such as BlackRock, which is why you have praised the growth of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE).”

Malema accused Ramaphosa of selling state infrastructure, including ports, railways, and energy generation capacity, to the private sector, and warned that water could be next.

He said the president had failed to take responsibility for creating jobs.

“You do not take responsibility for fighting crime. You do not take responsibility for infrastructure development, and you do not take responsibility for growing our economy,” he said.

“There is no sign of any infrastructure for a bullet train, no design plans for a smart city, and not even a curriculum for the institution of higher learning in Ekurhuleni, as you promised.”

Malema said, “You asked us to send you Thumamina, and we made a mistake. And as your term of office comes to an end, you have nothing to show for it.”

He criticised Ramaphosa’s handling of crime, saying that deployment of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) to Gauteng and the Western Cape is a last resort.

“You are admitting that you have failed to fight crime. The people of Gauteng have been terrorised for too long by the so-called Zama-Zamas, and on the deployment of the army, we have no choice but to support you, because you have destroyed law enforcement capacity.”

Malema questioned whether the military, weakened by austerity measures and humiliated abroad, could tackle crime domestically.

“Our concern is, how do you deploy a military which has been crippled by austerity measures to fight crime? Because we know that our military is under-strained and under-resourced, and has been humiliated in war zones abroad. How do you intend to ensure they can fight crime domestically?”

He noted that the army is trained for combat, not civilian law enforcement.

“The scale of crime in our country cannot be dealt with by the army alone, because crime is a national crisis and a social crisis. If we do not resolve the challenges of unemployment, alcohol and substance abuse, and the high drop-out rates of youth from schools, then crime will be a permanent feature in our society.”

“Crime in South Africa is organised through drug syndicates, protection fee rings, sex trafficking rings, and gangs. It has infiltrated all forms of government, and putting guns in the streets alone will not resolve this crisis,” Malema said.

He added that the root of the problem in the criminal justice system begins with Ramaphosa’s own political party.

“The biggest syndicate is the political party you are leading, Mr President… Mr President, subjectively, this government has done nothing to grow this economy or to strengthen our courage.”

Malema said it was important to remind Ramaphosa of his own commitments.

“Last year, on this same platform, you committed to grow the economy by 3% through infrastructure investment, structural reforms, and inclusive growth and employment.”

“You no longer speak of this figure, and the National Treasury itself predicts economic growth at 1.5%, and will most likely revise this projection downward as the year progresses, because that is their tradition.”

He said Ramaphosa presents a budget surplus as a positive economic indicator, but this reflects austerity rather than progress.

“Why would you be proud of a budget surplus in a country with massive unemployment, collapsing municipal infrastructure, and poverty which is leading to the death of children in the Eastern Cape?

''Your pride when it comes to EPWP jobs is something you should be ashamed of and not mention at this level of governance. Those are temporary jobs which are used to secure income for volunteers of your political party.”

Malema criticised the insecurity of Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) jobs.

“It enslaves jobs with no security because it cannot secure a car or a home with an EPWP job.”

He said the electricity crisis in South Africa is far from over.

“The mistake you are making in declaring an end to the electricity crisis is the same mistake you have made with the water crisis for decades in this country.”

“Now that the people of Sandhurst no longer experience an electricity outage, you no longer view it as a crisis, forgetting the people of Soweto, Mdantsane, Seychelles, and Ditsobotla.”

He claimed Ramaphosa had given load shedding a new name: “load reduction.”

“On top of that, you have lost control of the pricing regime of electricity, and Nersa is announcing an increase in the cost of electricity every few months.

“Your municipalities do not have an idea of the infrastructure they are seized with governing. It does not matter how many billions of rands you give them to revive water infrastructure.”

Malema said ministers and mayors lacked knowledge of town planning and water infrastructure.

“The fact of the matter is your minister and your mayors do not know the town planning of where water infrastructure begins and where it ends. This is why they respond to burst pipes and leakages as they happen and run after one pipe to the other.”

He praised EFF MMC for water in Ekurhuleni, Thembi Msane, who has been declared a “water champion.”

“When your minister (Pemmy Majodina) was running around complaining about water, our MMC of water in Ekurhuleni was given an award the same week and declared a water champion.”

“Instead of benchmarking from the DA, which struggles to provide clean water to people in the city, go and benchmark from the EFF department in Ekurhuleni on how to fix the water crisis.”

Malema said municipalities will not be fixed unless the equitable share model is revised.

“The idea that all municipalities can be self-reliant on revenue generation when you preside over a country that is massively de-industrialising and suffering massive unemployment is misguided.”

He called for stronger municipal capacity and recovery of revenue from major industries, offering incentives to industries for investing in municipal infrastructure.

Malema said the EFF supports Ramaphosa’s posture on international relations, including support for Palestine, Western Sahara, South Sudan, and Cuba.

“We agree with you that Africa must begin to negotiate its trade relations as a bloc and with unity, and that no nation must ever think it has the right to bully us and impose on us who our friends must be and who our enemies must be.”

He condemned xenophobic violence and ritual killings ahead of local government elections.

“They must ask their friends who came here with the name of killing foreigners. They did not win elections. Xenophobia will never win elections, and some of them are found in your cabinet.”

Malema urged Ramaphosa to take concrete action against Israel.

“You must exhibit your courage by closing the Israeli embassy, which is a resolution of this nationalism. You have declared their representative persona non grata, and the skies did not fall. Close their embassy and cut relations with this genocidal nation.”

He criticised the US diplomat, calling the appointment “rampant racism” and asserting the country has the right to refuse cooperation.

Malema said the Phalaphala scandal had rendered Ramaphosa ineffective in dealing with corruption and incompetence.

“When Dr Zweli Mkhize was found to be involved in a digital pipe scandal, you did not have the courage to remove him. He resigned. Today, Zweli Mkhize is chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs.

“While David Masondo was identified as being a key part of corruption in the State Security Agency by the Zondo Commission, you did not remove him. Today he is Deputy Minister of Water and Sanitation.”

He also criticised the handling of suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu and minister of Water and Sanitation Pemmy Majodina, accusing Ramaphosa of creating task teams instead of exercising consequence management.

“If you have the courage to remove her, remove her now so that you demonstrate that you’ve got the courage.”

Malema slammed Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi for suggesting citizens shower at hotels during water outages.

However, Lesufi later apologised.

“When you assumed office, you claimed it would be a transparent presidency, then proceeded to sell CR17 documents of your campaign and block investigations on Phalaphala. Where’s the transparency?”

“Let me reassure you, Mr President: as long as the EFF is alive and in Parliament, Phalaphala will never die.”

The EFF has long called for the Constitutional Court to release its delayed judgment on the Phalaphala matter, accusing the judiciary of undermining constitutional supremacy.

The party centres on the 2020 theft of an estimated R10 million from Ramaphosa’s farm and the alleged unlawful cover-up, arguing that delays in the impeachment-related case heard in November 2024 have eroded public confidence in the judiciary.

simon.majadibodu@iol.co.za 

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