by SAVIOUS KWINIKA
Editor-In-Chief
JOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – THE call by pan-Africa’s largest political party, Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), on BRICS leaders to boycott the bloc’s summit in August is a massive statement to the party’s fight against imperialism.
This was among the major calls by EFF Commander-In-Chief Julius Malema, as the South African opposition party commemorated its tenth-year anniversary, an event graced by an estimated 120 000 supporters at the country’s largest arena, FNB Stadium, this past weekend.
BRICS is acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
EFF has called on leaders from the bloc to boycott the upcoming summit, in South Africa, in solidarity with Russian President, Vladimir Putin.
Putin is target of a controversial warrant of arrest by the International Criminal Court (ICC) after the ongoing conflict with Ukraine.
Malema laid blame Putin’s pullout from the summit on host president, Cyril Ramaphosa, whose government failed to guarantee Putin’s safety.
“We want to say to President Putin, it is not us South Africans, who refused you from coming into the country, it is Ramaphosa….the coward Ramaphosa, who could not guarantee that we will not arrest Putin,” Malema charged.
He added: “We (South Africans) are Putin, and Putin is us……and we will never support imperialism against President Putin.”
This was in reference to Western forces led by the United States and the North Atlantic Treat Organisation (NATO).
Malema alleged the US was secretly threatening South Africa with sanctions if the country allowed Putin access into the country for the BRICS summit.
“Comrades, America is threatening us with the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) that if we do not arrest comrade (Cde) Putin, they are going to take away AGOA. They (US) can take away (their) AGOA and leave us with our sovereignty….and leave us with our foreign policy. We must have the capacity to make the decision of our own.”
Malema thus appealed to BRICS leaders to show solidarity with Putin and his country.
“We call on the presidents of the People’s Republic of China, India and Brazil not to come to the BRICS Summit in solidarity with president Putin. They must say you (the West) touch one of us, you touch all of us,” Malema insisted.
Putin’s attendance, or non-attendance, has been a sideshow.
The ICC has been widely condemned for its selective application of law as it only targets alleged offenders that are not from the United States and Europe.
The court is accused of, among other infractions, the US and its NATO allies killing more than 1 million Iraqi children, women and disabled persons under the pretext of looking for weapons of mass destruction, which they later established was a lie.
The US and NATO stand accused of masterminding the toppling and killing of Libyan president Muammar Gaddafi.
Israel administrations have never been under the ICC radar, despite the US ally illegally occupying Palestinian territories since 1967.
– CAJ News