Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema says his party will be ready to go into government once the ANC removes the Democratic Alliance from the government of national unity (GNU).
Malema made the comment in his closing address on Sunday to the EFF’s third elective conference which saw him returned unopposed as party leader.
The party’s other top six members include deputy president Godrich Gardee, secretary general Marshall Dlamini, deputy secretary general Leigh-Ann Mathys, national chairperson Nontando Nolutshungu and treasurer general Omphile Maotwe.
Malema told delegates that the national coalition government would not last, predicting that if President Cyril Ramaphosa did not bring into effect the two contentious clauses of the Basic Education Amendment (Bela) Act, ANC members were going to remove him.
If Ramaphosa was not removed now as South Africa’s president, this would happen after the ANC elective conference in 2027 and he would be replaced by someone opposed to the unity government, Malema went on to predict.
His remarks were an apparent reference to deputy president Paul Mashatile, who plays a key role in the coalition government with the DA and other parties but was seen singing an anti-GNU song at this week’s South African Communist Party congress.
“The person who is going to be elected is a person who is going to fight GNU, and that is why we are saying it will not last,” Malema said.
“Everywhere else it is being rejected, but people keep on imposing it on members of the ANC, so don’t rush comrades, we are waiting, we are going to enter this government. We are just waiting, you will see.”
He said when the ANC started fighting with DA federal chair Helen Zille, the EFF would enter government. It would do this not to save the ANC, but to work for the people and through this, they would vote the EFF into power at the next elections, Malema added.
“Our people gave all the progressive black parties a majority to govern in South Africa, the ANC decided to go with right wingers, racists, white supremacists. It will come back to its senses. When it comes back to its senses, When it comes back to its senses, we are here,” he said.
Malema said if the ANC were to invite Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe party into the coalition government, that would be its own problem, making clear that the EFF’s participation wasn’t dependent on MK’s inclusion.
“We want nothing to do with uMkhonto (but) it’s their own (problem) if they want them… We can’t choose friends for them anyway. They were friends together, criminals,” he said.
Malema said being tasked with the responsibility of being the vanguard of the struggle for economic freedom was not a personal achievement for the EFF’s newly-elected leaders.
“No one has won anything here today. It is only the EFF. The EFF showed the highest level of discipline and democracy without any incidents of violence or humiliation of any individual,” he said, adding that the conference had proved that the party was “bigger than all of them”.
“There were countless attempts to inspire division, factionalism and disunity ahead of this national people’s assembly, and as delegates of branches of the EFF, you resisted the agents of disruption and delivered a successful conference. For this, I thank you,” he told delegates.
Malema said many of the members of the EFF central command team (CCT) who were elected on Saturday would be leading at the national level for the first time and the party should determine what this entailed. Every CCT member must be an all rounder with the capacity to organise and mobilise without seeking external assistance, he added.
Malema said there were people who had been working day and night to divide the EFF, not because they hated the party, but because they could never succeed outside factional politics.
“So our leaders will have to grow very fast, because factionalism is what destroyed the ANC and it will destroy the EFF. Our leaders must learn to consult each other. There is no leader here who possesses all of the wisdom,” he said.
“If you are a secretary of a province, you find yourself talking to other secretaries of provinces, giving them names from your province, and you have not consulted with your chairperson about that. You must know you are a problem.
“You have to respect each other and respecting each other means you have to respect each other’s views. You don’t have to agree with the name, but give them an opportunity to express themselves.”
In an apparent reference to EFF MP Mbuyiseni Ndlozi, who had been punted as a potential deputy president, but skipped the elective conference, Malema said “there is no leader of the EFF who’s not here in front”.
“There’s no leader of the EFF who’s not here in Nasrec. If they are not here, they are not leaders of the EFF. You must never regard them as the leaders of the EFF,” he added.
