Charles Molele
EFF leader Julius Malema has called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to trim his Cabinet or else face a revolt in Parliament.
Addressing a media briefing about his party’s performance in the 2019 General Elections, Malema said the country’s Cabinet must be reduced to size as a matter of urgency.
He said Ramaphosa would feel the wrath of the EFF in Parliament if he failed to reduce the Cabinet.
“If he doesn’t do this, it will be a declaration of war and we shall respond decisively. Parliament is no playground and its teeth will bite whenever necessary,” said Malema.
“Let Cabinet be reduced drastically. It’s unreasonable; we are wasting money on people that do not work. They use Deputy Minister positions for political expediency and patronage, and not for the betterment of South Africa.”
Malema said he has already raised the matter with Ramaphosa before the elections about the need to do away with deputy ministers.
“When I spoke to the President, before elections, I said we do not need Deputy Ministers. Let the President take the country into confidence as to why there is Deputy Ministers because those people do not do anything, they only oversee the administration,” he said.
Malema’s comments about reducing Cabinet comes just a day after Ramaphosa assured a gathering of investors in Johannesburg that his Cabinet would be restructured to bolster plans to grow the ailing South African economy.
Ramaphosa told investors that “the structure of Cabinet in the sixth administration will enable government to focus on generating higher economic growth, creating more jobs and serving the people of South Africa better”.
‘We are cruising’
Turning to the EFF’s performance in the 2019 General Elections, Malema said he was happy that his party was growing in every province in the country and fared well in place where the ruling party lost support.
“We are doing well, we are flying!” – #JuliusMalema #EFFPresser pic.twitter.com/0w64pD0apI
— Inside Politics (@InsidePolitics8) May 16, 2019
Malema said he particularly welcomed the fact that the EFF was now the official opposition in three provinces and has shown tremendous growth in the province of KwaZulu-Natal.
The party is currently the official opposition in three provinces: Mpumalanga, Limpopo and North West.
In the North West, the EFF retained its status as the official opposition with 18.64%, which is 178,013 of the votes cast in the province.
In 2014, the EFF garnered 13.20% of the vote.
In Mpumalanga, the party received 12.79% support, replacing the DA as the official opposition party after it received only 9.77%.
Meanwhile, in Limpopo, support for the DA dropped by 1.08 percentage points from its 2014 support, while the EFF grew its backing by just under 3.7 percentage points.
“The Economic Freedom Fighters welcomes the outcomes of the 2019 General Elections and coveys its sincere gratitude and thankfulness to the more than 1.8-million voters who showed confidence in the organisation,” said Malema.
“As a result of the 2019, the EFF has 103 Members of Parliament and Members of Provincial Legislatures, with 44 in the National Assembly, 9 in the National Council of Provinces and 50 MPLs. When comparing the 2014 and 2019 General Elections, the EFF recorded the most tremendous growth meaning that more and more South Africans have confidence in the struggle for economic freedom.”
Malema said the growth in KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga was a result of seer hard work.
“The EFF growth in KZN and Mpumalanga is as a result of handwork. In Mpumalanga we deployed the DP, Commissar Veronica and Mme Reneiloe. That was a solid team. In KZN we dissolved the structures and we started working from the ground. We hadn’t performed well in the local government elections, we had to dissolve the structures because we realized there was laziness,” said Malema.
All these provinces where we dissolved the structures and rebuilt from the ground up, we experienced growth in the General Elections.”
‘Media imposed Ramaphosa on SA’
Malema said his party performed well despite attacks from certain media quarters backed Ramaphosa over other party leaders.
“What the 2019 Election results revealed is that mainstream media in South Africa is not in touch with reality and what is happening on the ground,” said Malema.
“The entire capitalist establishment, including international media tried to impose Ramaphosa on the people of South Africa and a significant number refused to be puppets.
“If it were according to the capitalist media wishes, Cyril Ramaphosa would have achieved 80% ANC victory, and yet in reality the ANC support reduced in all provinces under his leadership.”
Malema added that, “The reality is that despite being presented as the best of the best, Ramaphosa performed worse than Jacob Zuma, meaning that to ordinary people, Ramaphosa is not better than Zuma.”
