‘You can vote for EFF if you don’t support Israel’

MIRAH LANGER

“Anyone in South Africa who is here and keen to advance the plight of the poor and also advocate for what the EFF advocates for, we do not have a problem… Unless people have beliefs that are against humanity; unless people have beliefs like the Israeli people.”

Israelis, said Mente, were those who “just occupy other people’s land and kill other people, and think that it’s funny. We have no relations with such people.”

Asked what the EFF’s stance was on the downgrading of the South African embassy in Israel, Mente said the move was a “good thing”, but needed to go further. “The Israeli embassy in South Africa must be removed, not just downgraded.

“We cannot have an embassy in South Africa of people that is perpetuating genocide on other people. How do you have a government that just occupies other people’s space and makes them subjects, not just makes them subjects – we are going back to the slavery era.

“It [Israel] is killing them. It is killing children. It is killing babies. Those people [Palestinians] must now seek refuge in the mountain with animals, without food, without water. They are dying. [Israel] is killing them with weapons and everything. Those Israeli people, they are just the worst of people.”

Asked what her definition of genocide was, Mente said it was “when people are unleashing unnecessary violence on others and the violence that is influenced by you gaining power over them and an imperialist system that seeks to take over the economy”. [sic]

Mente suggested that if the International Criminal Court was “of any activeness for our globe” it should start by dealing with Israel.

She said South Africa needed to be more vocal about “the Palestine genocide” at international forums like the United Nations or the Pan-African Parliament, and that if the EFF came to power, it would take up the cause immediately.

Mente said people who wanted to support the work of the EFF and contribute to South Africa must believe in complete equality.

In addition, “they should be open to the sharing of the land [and] they should be open to paying salaries that are not less than R4 500. Especially the Jewish community, most of them… [are] owning businesses. Their contribution first and foremost should be to pay their workers not less than R4 500, which will be a minimum wage under the EFF government.”

She said the Jewish community could also support the EFF by assisting the underprivileged, especially schoolchildren, with shelter, clothes, and school fees.

“They must do that. We won’t have a problem with them.”

Asked what the EFF’s response was to young Jewish South Africans who were considering leaving the country as they felt uncertain if they had a space in it, Mente said, “If they don’t feel comfortable being among black people who are poor in South Africa, they can go, no problem. They can leave the country, no problem. We won’t beg them to stay. If they don’t want to live with people in South Africa, as they feel that their equality to black people hampers their space, then they can leave. Because us, as black Africans in particular, we don’t have anywhere else to go. This is where we were born. This is where our ancestors were born.

“At least Jewish people have somewhere to go. They can go back to where they came from; they have other countries where the Jewish people are living.”

Mente said her party’s election campaign was going well. The EFF has only one goal, namely winning government.

“The only thing that we hope for, and that we are working towards, is the winning of government. We are not working to be kingmaker. We are not working towards being an opposition. We must get 51% and above [of the national vote]. That is our target.”

• The EFF declined to grant an interview with party leader Julius Malema, citing his busy campaign schedule. After protracted discussions, the SA Jewish Report was invited to engage with Veronica Mente.