An “economic adviser” to the recently-appointed South African minister of finance, Malusi Gigaba, has called for “taking up arms” against white farmers if they do not hand over their property to government. Christopher Malikane, a Marxist economics professor at the left-wing University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, was speaking at a blacks-only conference organised by local radical group Black First Land First (BFLF).

Apart from calling for the handing over of all land to blacks in South Africa, BFLF also wants to imprison whites who resist a black revolution for life, deeming it “racism”. Malikane addressed the BFLF as part of a “Blacks In Dialogue” event where whites were not welcome. According to Blacks First Land First, “Prof Malikane expanded on his already public views on radical economic transformation. It’s with great shock to see the white-owned media blatantly lie about what Prof Malikane said at the event.”

President Jacob Zuma of South Africa and his finance minister have committed to “radical economic transformation”, a euphemism for Marxist revolution in the country. One of the first steps in the revolution would be to expropriate all land belonging to white farmers — without compensation. Zuma recently fired his Indian minister of finance, Pravin Gordhan, and replaced him with fellow Zulu, Malusi Gigaba on 31 March 2017. The new finance minister appointed Christopher Malikane as economics adviser towards mid-April.

According to Sunday newspaper City Press, Malikane wanted to have the idea of taking up arms against whites “discussed”. The paper reported him as saying: “It’s not for me to decide. It’s the progressive forces that must decide. My role is to unite these progressive forces. Taking up arms is one thing, but building a country is another.”

Malikane acknowledged that South Africa would suffer economic hardship during “radical economic transformation”, similar to what countries like Venezuela and Zimbabwe have experienced. He told the audience at the “Blacks In Dialogue” conference:

“It’s true that this country will plunge and become like Venezuela and Zimbabwe. India went through the same pain.

“If we are real about transformation, we need to be real and strengthen our people ideologically and politically. We need to organise and educate our people. Did you think to transform is going to be nice?”