Press Statement: Happy birthday to our CIC – Julius Malema

The EFF wishes the Commander in Chief of the Economic Emancipation Movement, Julius Malema, a long life on his birthday. We take this opportunity to pay special gratitude to his family, in particular his late mother, for lending their son to the African revolution. To his grandmother, who has had a long life, we say may the CiC Julius Malema live long like you and may his lifetime witness the attainment of the mission of economic freedom for all our people.

We also thank his new wife and your son, for allowing us each day, hour and minute of a time he should spend with them. When the revolution blossoms, because of this sacrifice, let it be known and recorded that theirs was a timeless contribution of him to the course.

This is indeed a special day in the EFF and the broader economic emancipation movement to mark the birthday of a young life whose impact is already eternal. With you, we celebrate a life which bears testimony to the fact that revolution is the activity of youth. History has added your name to that of great revolutionaries like Tsietsi Mashinini, Steve Biko, Che Guevara, Anton Lembede and many more who shifted sands of history in the days of their youth.

In this age of gerontocracy and mounting assault against the politically conscious youth, your life is a great lesson and inspiration to us all. It says to society, the youth are those who are always open to learning, advancing and prepared to live their lives absolutely for others and not prisoned by the physical body and its age.

We celebrate a life of consistency in application of principle. A tried and tested solider of the economic emancipation movement. We celebrate a life of persistency, perseverance, selflessness and commitment to the course. A life made out of fire and wounds sustained in an undying cry for the fulfilment of the liberation promise. A life outcast and dejected for insisting on speaking truth to power, only in pursuit of a historic mission for the total emancipation of humanity from racisms and class exploitation.

In the year of the anniversary of 1976, we see your life as an embodiment of the spirit of that heroic generation of young people who opposed the system of white supremacy and colonisation. A youth who also rejected the complicity of the adult collective of its time and took on the revolutionary mission to its hands in an attempt to redefine a new a day in the lives of black people.

On your birthday, we call on all the people of South Africa to celebrate you by registering to vote on the 5-6 March 2016, in particular the youth. We call on them to intensify the struggle you represent by taking on the political freedom to vote and correct the course of the liberation struggle that you have given all your life thus far to. There can be no fulfilling birthday gift than a fundamental affirmation of your mission through a vote to towards the attainment of economic freedom in our lifetime.

Finally, we celebrate a revolutionary who has lived his youth to the fullest and whose consistency has inspired people across the African continent, its diaspora and the world. There is no doubt that generations to come will celebrate the CIC’s contribution to the struggle for emancipation and true freedom in the same manner Kwame Nkuruma, Patrice Lumumba, Thomas Sankara and many great revolutionaries are celebrated.

Long live CIC Julius Malema, Long Live. #HappyBirthdayCiC