Riyaz Patel
EFF President Julius Malema say his party will embark on an aggressive campaign against the banks and President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government next year.
Malema emphasized the point during his closing address at the party’s National People’s Assembly in Johannesburg where he was re-elected unopposed.
“The financial sector must be fought. 2020, it’s a war against the financial sector and against the banks of South Africa. We need them to know that no one is above the power of our people,” he told delegates.
This, he said, would be achieved with the help of leftist organisations such as trade union federation Saftu and its affiliate Numsa.
“We want to say to Numsa, Saftu, AMCU, let us unite in defence of the property that belongs to our people. We need to send a strong message to ABSA, FNB, Nedbank and a very soft message to Standard Bank. They must be confronted, and they must be told they cannot do as the wish.”
Saftu and Amcu committed that they would set aside their differences with the EFF to mount a mass campaign against the private sector.
Saftu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi and AMCU president Joseph Mathunjwa were in attendance as VIP guests on the first day of conference when Malema gave his opening address.
In a discussion document, the EFF indicated that it needed to extend its influence and establish a trade union.
Malema then turned his sights on the President.
“Ramaphosa, I want to tell you now that, even if you release Khaya Cekeshe, you are not our friend, because of what you did in Marikana. You are not our friend, because you want to sell our assets.”
With the 2021 local elections on the horizon, the EFF is looking to consolidate its bases, and it has its eyes set on taking over a number of the metros where no party has a clear majority.
Malema hopes the weakened metros will be ripe for the picking.
“We want to take Johannesburg; we want to take Tshwane; we want to take PE because all these coalition governments are telling you that the people are tired of the ANC.”
As part of the party’s strategy to encourage hard work among its members, Malema said the EFF would do away with proportional representation councillors.
“In the previous local government elections, we had a problem of hard-working candidates losing their wards. The lazy ones from the PR lists going inside council on the vote of ward candidates. The ones who follow, are the ones who got the highest votes, those will be our PR councillors to deal decisively with opportunism and laziness.”
Malema also took aim at the provinces, blasting many of the underperforming areas, including members from his home province Limpopo, saying leaders should be “ashamed” for only increasing its share in the legislature by one seat.
“Someone must explain to me why Limpopo province performs the way it does, because the people of Limpopo are looking for the EFF. But Limpopo is not giving us what we want. There is a problem there, deputy president.”
