Mines should be nationalised to pay for the education of university students, ANC Youth League president Julius Malema told students at the University of Limpopo's Medunsa campus in Ga-Rankuwa on Wednesday.
He told the students to loud cheers that one mine could fund students fees at the Medunsa campus alone.
"If one mine takes over this university in terms of funding, you won't have to worry about government," he said.
He said political emancipation had happened but that the league was fighting for the economic emancipation of blacks.
"I emphasise that our struggle remains non-racial. South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white. But they (whites) have never been oppressed. Our struggle is for economic emancipation," he said.
He praised both Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe and the preceding white-ruled Rhodesian government for educating Zimbabwe's people better than "the qualified bantu education " that South African blacks had received in the past.
"You can say what you like about Zimbabwe, but one thing he (Mugabe) has done is educate his people.."
He said the organisation would be leading the fight to have the Medunsa campus of the University of Limpopo demerged from the institution.
He said the Medical University of Southern Africa should never have been merged with the University of Limpopo, but that its resources should have been increased.
He said that since the merger, student numbers at Medunsa as well as academic teaching staff numbers had declined.
"We want to bring back that pride of Medunsa. It will come back because the Youth League says so," he said.
He said that he had called higher education and training minister Blade Nzimande and told him that the league would be fighting to have Medunsa separated from the University of Limpopo.
He said that Nzimande had told him that the department would be launching a commission to investigate the issue.
"Any government investigation will show what we are saying. This merger is not working," he said.
– Sapa.