Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema on Sunday urged his supporters to reject anything that represented President Jacob Zuma and his "uneducated family".

We don’t want to be like Jacob Zuma. We don’t want to be like Zuma’s family, we want to be educated, that is what we are fighting for. Even Khulubuse [Zuma's nephew] is not educated. We don’t want anything that has got to do with that family.

"We are rejecting anything that represents Jacob Zuma. Lack of education is what represents Jacob Zuma," Malema said to more than 1 500 supporters after visiting detained student activist, Bonginkosi Khanyile, at the Westville Correctional Services Centre in Durban.

Khanyile was arrested in September during the Fees Must Fall protests and has remained behind bars despite the release of other student leaders around the country.

Among the charges he faces are assault and possession of a dangerous weapon.

‘Zuma hates education’

He is reportedly a final year Durban University of Technology public administration student and EFF representative.

"When a person does not want to go to school, you must say to them, 'Uhm, Zuma must be your role model because the man hates education with everything in him. And all those who support him also hate education’," Malema said.

"Hlaudi [Mostoeneng] was asked a simple question. 'Would you consider going back to school, Hlaudi?' He is not old, he still has energy but he said a big 'no'."

Malema joked that the embattled SABC executive "refused education like it was a biting animal".

He said the reason why some South Africans were not uneducated today was because they were failed by "the system".

"If we can challenge the system and make more people educated, then economic freedom is going to be achieved."

‘Education a threat to white people’

Malema said he earlier told leaders inside the prison "that the reason why they hate education is because it is a direct threat to white people".

"It is threatening white privilege, white supremacy and capitalism because when you are educated, who is going to be a domestic worker in the house of a white man? Who is going to provide the cheap labour?" Malema asked to loud cheers.

He said free education was true liberation, and that is "why they hate it".

He added that when the country was colonised, the thing that was taken away from the people was education.

"An educated person would have used all the methods in the book to reclaim the land. They would have fought for the mines, the banks, financial sector and for everything important in the economy."
Today, he said, South Africa was the seller of cheap labour.

"We don’t want our children and grandchildren to be uneducated. We want an educated South Africa, we want to be like Zimbabwe, an educated Zimbabwe.

"The same Zimbabweans that are working for you. The same people that you look down upon, they are well educated, more than you, their employer. That is why they understand the land question more than anyone else."

Zimbabweans might be poor today, "but they know that the future looks bright, when the illegal sanctions are removed, our land will produce those fruits and they fruits will feed the entire continent".

He said once Zimbabwe defeated the sanctions, it would become the capital of Africa.

"Because Africans own their land. Land and education is everything. Decolonised education is everything and that is what we want and are fighting for."