PHUTI MOSOMANE
EFF leader Julius Malema says the planned national protest is the beginning of activities to put pressure on President Cyril Ramaphosa to resign.
“This is a protest and not a march. A protest has no formula, no starting or ending point. It is just the beginning of a revolution calling for the resignation of the President.”
“What if it moves beyond the 20th? It will no longer be EFF’s protest, it will have been taken over by the people,” Malema said.
Malema said the protest will seek to highlight issues of unemployment, challenges at higher education, lack of water and electricity in communities, the potholes that exist on roads, the high levels of crime and gender-based violence, and the high levels of corruption in South Africa.
“We want to reassure South Africans that this is a national shutdown calling on the resignation of the President and demand the end to loadshedding and bring to light the issues that affect young people,” Malema added.
So far, the protest has been endorsed by South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU), African Transformation Movement (ATM), and the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC).
“We have to stand up, and don’t tell us the shutdown will make the economy worse than what it is, we heard that,” he said.
On allegations that the EFF has instructed businesses to close on Monday 20th of March, Malema said the party only made business owners aware of the protest on Monday.
“If you’ve been made aware and you do what is in your best interest, it is your call, don’t come back to the EFF and say it must take responsibility,” he said.
“You know that if shops are open, people take advantage of those shops and engage in illegal activities. We are not saying in any of our letters to close the shop, we are making them aware that there will be a protest on the day, for them to make preparations to take into consideration that there will be a protest on that day.”
The EFF leader said his party is expected to meet the South African National Taxi Council (SANTACO) on Wednesday evening to make them aware of the shutdown programme.
“Malema: We are doing the same tonight with SANTACO, our regions have met with the regions and local structures of SANTACO,” said Malema.
“We want nothing from SANTACO, it’s an important stakeholder that must be made aware that the streets are going to be occupied. SANTACO uses those streets everyday and therefore it’s only courtesy that we go and inform them and say we know you use this facility on a daily basis but please be aware that this facility will be occupied by a protest on the 20th of March.”
Malema also confirmed that he has held meetings with the Premier Soccer League (PSL) to make them aware that if there is any other planning that the league has, it should take the protest into consideration.
“I personally went to meet with the chairperson of the PSL to make him aware so that he doesn’t get surprised that they’ve set plans as the PSL and we have other things, when they respond it looks like they’re clashing with what the EFF is planning,” he said.
Malema said the EFF has never threatened violence, and said concerns raised by DA leader John Steenheisen was “a PR exercise”.
“Anyone who says we’ve threatened violence, is not telling the truth because we have not threatened violence. All we did was to be nice to all the stakeholders because that is in the nature and character of the EFF,” he said, adding that the DA has approved the EFF’s protest in Western Cape, and in the Cape Metro, in particular.
“How do you approve something today, and tomorrow you want to appear on TV as if you’re not going to allow this type of a protest to happen. The only difference between what we are doing on the 20th of March and what we did against President Zuma is that it doesn’t involve the white man.”
“Like he did with Marikana, let him do it, like the apartheid government did with Sharpville, let history repeat itself, we’re not scared, we’re ready for anything on the 20th of March,” he said.
ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri said the governing party has noted with concern and trepidation the planned national shutdown organised by the EFF.
“We believe a shutdown of this nature is neither in the interest of the country nor does it advance our hard-worn democracy. This is the clearest demonstration that the EFF has no interest in building a cohesive nation that invests its collective will to the development and growth of the country,” she said.
Steinheisen has launched an urgent interdict against the EFF and the planned national shutdown.
“It would be a mistake to underestimate the damage that the EFF’s enforced “national shutdown” could cause to businesses and workers. That is why we are going to court for an urgent interdict against the EFF, so that looters and anarchists can be stopped in their tracks,” said Steenhuisen.
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