Johnathan Paoli
THE Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) President Julius Sello Malema has declared his party’s willingness to work with other parties in a coalition in order to ensure transformation and improve service delivery challenges within the country.
Addressing the media in Johannesburg on Friday, Malema said that coalitions were the most workable solutions to the challenges and obstacles which remain as stark reminders of the current political landscape.
“We are open to talk to everyone (including the DA) to prioritise the people, and the inclusion of the EFF in a coalition comes with a huge opportunity for the party to learn and show South Africa what we are capable of,” the CIC said.
Malema called for what he referred to as an “Ekurhuleni situation”, in reference to the metro in which the party played a critical role in driving the ruling party, specifically in relation to crucial portfolios such as Finance.
It is widely expected for the ANC not to attain a majority within the province of Gauteng, and Malema told the media that for 30 years, the leadership of the ruling party has emotionally blackmailed expectations of transformation with the social capital and emotional power of ‘struggle credentials’.
He said the EFF was not ideologically so different from other parties such as MK, ATM, and PAC, specifically in relation to the land question, and that historically there was an agreement between the EFF and the ruling party to expropriate the land without compensation, to nationalise the South African Reserve Bank (SARB), the establishment of a State-Owned Bank and the nationalisation of the mining industry.
Malema said that he noted and agreed with the former president Jacob Zuma’s statements surrounding the land question, and that while the MK leader reportedly rejected Malema’s request for an endorsement of the EFF, he remained ideologically close to the party’s own position on expropriation without compensation.
Malema said that an example of the potential of the EFF could be found in the manner in which his party shifted financial control within a metropolitan from the ANC to the DA, and that it was due to this particular position, that the Red Berets could drive its mandate within municipalities.
“What killed the ANC is that it lost the purse of the metros. An ANC without power, is not an arrogant ANC,” he said.
The EFF leader said that the city of Ekurhuleni illustrated the hard work and dedication of his party, a fact which threatened the local ANC branches of the possibility of being “outshined” by its coalition partner’s performance.
Despite allegations to the contrary, Malema reminded the gathering that the EFF had saved the dire financial straits of the Ekurhuleni metro, and had not been guilty of fiscal irregularities.
He said that in light of the ‘threat’ of the EFF, and the fact that the ruling party has illustrated an inability to recover from its electoral losses, the provincial ANC of Gauteng would prefer the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) as a partner over the red berets.
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