Remove the borders and unify Africa, says EFF’s Floyd Shivambu

Durban – THE EFF’s deputy president Floyd Shivambu says none of the continents 54 heads of state is a ‘true Pan Africanist’ committed to the unification of Africa.

Shivambu was presenting a lecture on the party’s sixth of its seven cardinal pillars which calls for the massive development of the African economy and advocating for a move from reconciliation to justice on the entire continent.

This comes as the EFF prepares to commemorate its seventh anniversary, since its 2013 inception, with a virtual rally on Saturday.

“This is so sad because if you were to familiarise yourself with the ideas of Marcus Garvey, Kwameh Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere, Thomas Sankara, (Ahmed) Ben Bella, Robert Sobukwe, Patrice Lumumba, Gamal Abdel Nasser (Hussein), Muammar Gaddafi, Haile Selassie and of all these revolutionary Pan Africanists you will realise and appreciate that the only logical direction for the entire African continent is to unite.

“We have got no other way to defeat our colonisation and neo colonialism except through unity as the colonised and dispossessed people of Africa,” said Shivambu.

He said that although they were pursuing a national struggle for economic liberation the greater struggle was a Pan-African struggle which would see the emancipation of the entire continent from the claws of colonialism and its legacy.

Shivambu also reiterated the EFF’s long standing call for a borderless Africa, saying that the borders and states were a creation of colonialism and that the majority of them were not economically viable in a self sustainable manner that would propel the continent in a different way.

“The pillar that we are talking about today is saying that we must pursue massive development of the African economy and advocating for a move from reconciliation to justice in the entire African continent.

“So this says that the revolutionary Pan Africanists who are in South Africa must conduct our struggle in a manner that South African capacity to do big business should be expanded to the entire continent, state owned enterprises should heavily invest in the infrastructure and industrial development of the African continent.

“This should be markedly distinct from the manner in which the Western powers like the US and the European Union and China do business in Africa,” said Shivambu.

He added that the pillar also says that investment by SOEs like Transnet on the continent should leave massive footprints in skills transfer, the development of the communities where the investments happen, the paying of tax, reinvestments, corporate social investments, safety standards, compliance with labour laws and regulations in the fundamental economic development countries on the continent.

Political Bureau