PHUTI MOSOMANE
EFF leader Julius Malema said on Monday that there was no need to deliver a memorandum of demands to the Office of The President because the writing was on the wall: “Ramaphosa Must Go”.
“We have appointment with the streets, no memorandum will be delivered today,” he said while addressing protesters at Church Square, Pretoria.
“Ramaphosa is a sellout. He is no longer our President. He must leave and go to Phala Phala.”
Malema told thousands of his party protesters that he received a call at 2am on Monday morning from a bus company informing the party’s Treasurer-General that they were cancelling transportation of supporters to the march.
“The company said a certain Minister called and said as long as they received funds from government, they must support the EFF,” he said.
He told protesters that despite paying R1m for transport, the buses were cancelled.
It was not a normal trading day in the City of Tshwane as protesters gathered in their numbers at Church Square.
In a normally busy CBD, by 11AM on Monday, most shops, including restaurants, remained closed.
Police casspirs and Tshwane Metro police vehicles patrolled empty streets.
A staff member at a popular restaurant on Pretorius Street said they were not sure if customers would be allowed in.
“We are here but we are scared to open the doors,” a staffer who asked to remain anonymous said as she was checking the situation outside.
But a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet down Pretorius Street was the only business operating during the national shutdown.
“This protest has stopped many things, I had to walk down the road as the only restaurant open here is the KFC down the road,” said Dimakatso Bodiba, who closed not to go work today because of the protest.
Taxis and metros buses were operating without disruptions in and around the city’s CBD.
INSIDE POLITICS
