South African opposition leader Julius Malema on Sunday warned African governments against taking unchecked foreign loans, describing them as a “debt trap” that risks mortgaging the continent’s future.

Malema, who was speaking at the opening ceremony of the Nigeria Bar Association’s Annual General Conference in Enugu, called for tighter domestic oversight of borrowing and urged pan-African industrial cooperation.

He said, “The debt trap of Africa to our foreign colonisers must be stopped, and that begins by regulating these loans that our leaders commit future generations to, because they will not be there when the colonisers come to collect,” Malema told the gathering.

The President of South Africa’s Economic Freedom Fighters said his party has introduced the Public Finance Management Amendment Bill in South Africa to checkmate loans from these institutions.

He said, “The Public Finance Management Amendment Bill will in South Africa deal with a problem facing the whole continent, and that is the unregulated borrowing of money by our governments from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

“This bill, which we have introduced as the EFF, will require that the National Treasury in South Africa first seek approval from Parliament to source foreign loans and establish transparency regarding such loans and their conditionalities,” the EFF leader said.

The EFF leader also praised Nigeria’s historic support for South Africa’s anti-apartheid struggle, and proposed continued bond and closer economic ties between the two largest African economies.

“Combined, we possess the minerals that power modern technology, the energy resources that fuel global industry, and the human capital to build a self-sufficient continent.

“The path forward is clear: Nigeria and South Africa must industrialise together, build factories together, and process our resources on African soil,” he said.

He believes the continent’s “salvation” lies within and will not “come from Washington, London, Brussels, or Beijing.

“Our salvation lies here, in Lagos and Johannesburg, in Abuja and Pretoria, in the hands of Africans who refuse to be divided,” the firebrand South African politician told the thousands of lawyers and other dignitaries at the event. (PUNCH)