At a memorial service held on Thursday afternoon at Orlando East Communal Hall by the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) for founding Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe, the EFF leader expressed the view that while Mugabe delivered freedom to his people through the “barrel of a gun”, South Africa’s majority are still not in charge of their country.

“You can say whatever nonsense you want to say about them but their [freedom] came through a barrel of the gun. Yours was negotiated and that is why you can’t move from the sunset clauses,” he said, referring to clauses that the ANC accepted from the apartheid government during the Codessa negotiation process that preceded the transition to democracy, which are considered controversial to some.

Malema believes that South Africa, in contrast to Zimbabwe, is “owned by the white man”.

Addressing the issue of the recent xenophobic violence that has plagued SA, the EFF leader expressed the view that South Africans who are lashing out at foreigners cannot truly consider SA their country.

“You are defending the white man’s property,” Malema said. READ MORE: President Mugabe was ‘a perfect human being’ – Malema “You have nothing to show, yet you claim this is your country.

“You are telling people to leave your country, you come from an apartment, you come from a flat, you come from a house, you have no paper. When you get back home, after taking out Zimbabweans, the white man will be at the door showing you the way out. “You call them foreigners, what is the definition of a foreigner? Someone who comes into your country without papers and doesn’t have anything to show. That includes you, you are foreigners because you have nothing to show.

“You are renting. You are marching from the hostels, beating up people and telling them to leave South Africa, yet you do not own your own land. You are paying rent in that hostel, you can be removed yourself,” he said.

Malema also offered a different perspective to the more controversial aspects of Mugabe’s legacy, expressing the view that he has been incorrectly blamed for problems which were actually caused by sanctions imposed by the West.

“Today you say Zimbabwe is in trouble and the trouble of Zimbabwe is caused by Mugabe. It’s not true,” he said.