EFF leader Julius Malema has called for workers to be given shares in all strategic sectors within the economy, including the financial sector.

He said this during his address at the party's Workers' Day rally in Alexandra, Johannesburg, on Wednesday.

This would be realised through the party's land expropriation without compensation bill, he said. 

"When we have the land, we will have the firms. The firms must belong to workers. There should not be a factory or a mine or a bank or any strategic sector in the economy, including [the] financial sector, which does not have workers as shareholders."

He added that workers were essential to the growth and sustainability of all economic sectors.

Banks must give shares to employees

Malema insisted that banking firms such as Standard Bank needed to give employees shares instead of selling stakes in the company to the Chinese.

"You must be a shareholder of Standard Bank. Why should the Chinese be the only shareholder in Standard Bank when we are the bankers and the workers of Standard Bank? "

He added that Chinese people banked with their own banks and yet profits in a South African market go to China. 

"China, we are not fighting with you. We are very good friends with you. Friends tell each other the truth. In China you would never allow the nonsense you are doing here, not only here but in the whole African continent."

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China acquired a 20% stake in Standard Bank in 2007. 

Malema warned African leaders against taking in investors without negotiating for workers' rights. He said if investors refused to give employees a stake in their firms, "they must keep their money".

He said the EFF was not advocating for workers to receive shares without work but rather that workers receive dividends. 

Where is the money for Alex renewal project?

Malema also used the rally to launch an attack on ANC treasurer Paul Mashatile for the missing R1.6bn of the Alexandra Renewal Project (ARP).

He said Mashatile, together with Gauteng premier David Makhura and Mike Maile, must pay back the Alexandra money. 

Malema blamed Makhura for being complacent in the disappearance of over a billion rands in government funding for the township. 

"When he (Makhura) came here, he said I will investigate. What a stupid answer. What type of a premier are you? As a premier you must know where each cent went especially if that cent came from the public purse ... Never get tired of asking the ANC where the money is."

Last month, Makhura said the Auditor-General would probe the ARP, Eyewitness News reported.

Malema called Mashatile a "mini Jacob Zuma", adding that he deserved to go to jail. 

"We don't see any renewal here. All we see is a dirty place, an abandoned place, a place of forgotten people. Mashatile must tell us, where is the Alexandra renewal money? Even Ramaphosa came and lied and said he would give you houses ... We want the money of our government because the people of Alex need houses. We must give them houses."

He said Ramaphosa's grand promise of a million houses in five years for the people of Alexandra was a lie, adding that the people should not believe him.  

He said Alexandra was a true reflection of South Africa and anyone who wanted to see a true reflection of the country should come to "Alex". 

"If you want to know what the ANC has done come to Alexandra. What is it the ANC has done? They have done nothing. That is why you find nothing in Alexandra."