Julius Malema, a prominent South African politician, has attributed Africa’s developmental challenges, including those faced by Ghana, to a deviation from Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s values and an excessive focus on privatizing key state assets.
According to Malema, if countries on the continent drift away from Nkrumah’s principles of state-led development and prioritize privatization of strategic sectors of the economy, they will never be able to address the issue of unemployment.
This is because the interest of businesses is to maximize profit, and every time something strategic is privatized, the first victims of privatization are the workers, who are usually removed to maximize profit.
Speaking in Ghana, where he has been invited by the Arise Ghana Youth Movement to participate in a national dialogue on Pan-Africanism, Malema emphasized the importance of bringing forward issues of Pan-Africanism and economic emancipation as countries on the continent struggle to find their footing in a tensely polarized world.
The event is expected to provide the youth of Ghana with an opportunity to connect with Malema’s activism and commitment to a liberated and united Africa.
Malema also highlighted that the central message of the dialogue will be Pan-Africanism and economic emancipation of the length of Africa, not only in Ghana.
He noted that the democracy in Ghana is very old compared to other democracies on the continent but the means of production are still old-fashioned, as they were left behind by former colonizers.
He emphasized that political freedom without economic emancipation is meaningless.
Therefore, this type of engagement seeks to ensure that the people of the continent are aware that if they stand divided, only the imperialist and colonial forces stand to benefit. According to him, the unity of Africa is a threat to the enemies of Africa.
