Head of elections in the ANC Fikile Mbalula says there is a case for the pursuit of socialism in South Africa as the economy is still run and owned by a few elite.

Speaking at an event in Ekurhuleni commemorating the anniversary of Chris Hani’s assassination‚ Mbalula said the late SA Communist Party leader viewed socialism as necessary for the country’s unequal society.

“The case for socialism will never die. That is what we are doing here in our social democracy‚ if you like it‚ that we give young people free education. Others said that free education is not implementable. We are implementing free education as we speak in our universities. Never will a poor child fail to register in a university because they cannot afford. That is a revolution we are pursuing‚” said Mbalula.

He said the move by the ANC to expropriate land without compensation would not result in a crisis like that that took place in Zimbabwe.

Mbalula said the British had failed to honour what they had promised to Zanu PF‚ hence then president Robert Mugabe having had to embark on a “revolution” on the issue of land.

“Land must be redistributed. We had said willing seller‚ willing buyer but we could not produce [the] required results‚” he said.

He then urged all South Africans to abhor corruption.

“We should not wait for these people who wear blue T-shirts to be the ones telling us about the fight against corruption. Fighting against corruption begins with me and you. As members of the ANC we must never be found wanting in the fight against corruption. We must be in the forefront of that struggle.

“It must not be just free for all and people do corruption as if this is a banana republic. People simply eat as they like. We must stop that. It is us that must stop it‚” he said.

Mbalula then lamented the level of disrespect displayed between the young and the seniors in the ANC.

“I was disrespectful while I was the president of the ANC Youth League. I was disrespectful but I saw that this is not right. Let us not confuse militancy to disrespect. Let the senior people be answered by senior people [in the organisation]‚” he said.

The event commemorates the 25the anniversary of the assassination of Hani. He was killed on April 10 1993. At the time he was the general secretary of the SACP and a member of the national executive committee of the ANC.

Hani had led the joint SACP and ANC military wing‚ uMkhonto weSizwe‚ as its chief of staff and in various other capacities going back to the 1960s in the course of the struggle against apartheid.

The mayor of Ekurhuleni‚ Mzwandile Masina‚ announced during the commemoration held at the Thomas Nkobi Memorial Park‚ that the city had bought the house in which the late Hani lived and that it would be turned into a museum.