“We are with President Putin. We are Putin and Putin is us and we will never support imperialism against President Putin. America is threatening us with African Growth and Opportunity Act that if we don’t arrest Putin they are going to take away AGOA. They can take away AGOA and leave us with our sovereignty and leave us with our foreign policy, we must have capacity to make decisions on our own.” ~ Julius Malema

Malema issued the statement during his speech at the 10th Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) celebrations. He also called out on African presidents to drive the peace processes in their respective countries. He cried out to the loss of life caused by power hungry politicians, sitting the 12000 people killed in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) alone.

“We want to make a call in Kenya, especially to comrade Raila Odinga, stop doing what you are doing. Do not disrupt Kenya, we need peace in Kenya. We say to President Mnangagwa stop disrupting the peace of Zimbabwe. We want peace in Ethiopia; we want peace in the DRC.”

The EFF celebrated their 10th anniversary at a well attended afternoon at FNB Stadium in Soweto. Among the delegates who attended the event included various party leaders from Namibia, Kenya, Zimbabwe and also leaders from UDM and AZAPO within South Africa, among others.

On Wednesday, he returned to a settlement near the mine, where poor people live, as part of events to mark the EFF’s 10th anniversary.

The party slaughtered 15 cows and brewed traditional sorghum beer to “appease the ancestors”.

“We were born the moment the blood of the workers was soaked in this land,” said Mr Malema to the thousands of his supporters who had gathered to hear him speak.

“Today, we are here to dance and celebrate so that the enemy looking at us from a distance must feel the chest pains because they said the EFF would not last, but we are still here 10 years down the line,” he added.

Known in the EFF as the commander-in-chief, Mr Malema has promised to keep fighting for “economic freedom” – something that most black people have not attained almost three decades after the end of white-minority rule.

His critics say that his policies, especially nationalisation, are widely discredited, and will lead to economic disaster – not freedom.

Voters will give their verdict in next year’s general election, but for now Mr Malema is in buoyant mood, holding on Saturday a “festival of the poorest of the poor” as the climax of the EFF’s 10th anniversary celebrations. [Source: By Nomsa Maseko BBC News, Johannesburg]

Below are the celebrations in pictures. [Source, EFF Twitter]