Johannesburg - EFF leader Julius Malema slammed some of the party’s structures for failing to capitalise on the ANC’s internal problems to increase voter support of the red berets.
He said the party was losing support at the hands of the ANC in some regions due to ineffective campaigning.
Malema was delivering the closing address at the EFF’s second national people’s assembly (NPA) at Nasrec, south of Joburg, where the party elected new leadership.
Malema was re-elected unopposed together with his deputy Floyd Shivambu, EFF head of security Marshal Dlamini while EFF MP Veronica Mente was elected chairperson, EFF MP Ompile Maotwe was elected treasurer -general and Poppy Mailola deputy secretary-general.
He singled out the Ekurhuleni metro, where he warned that leaders would be removed from positions if they failed to work the ground and recover the gains made by the EFF in the 2016 local elections.
“In Ekurhuleni, the ANC took the votes from us in 2019 and we even lost the wards we won in 2016. It means you are sleeping there.
“If you know what is good for you, from tomorrow you will do the right thing go and regain the votes of the EFF,” he said.
As Malema urged the EFF’s new leadership to help grow the party’s support, he vowed to join forces with other left formations to oppose President Cyril Ramaphosa’s administration over its running of the country.
Malema called on EFF members and leaders to lead the fight against government’s purported plan to sell some of the state-owned companies, including SA Airways and Eskom.
Malema said even as he was commending Ramaphosa for releasing “Fees Must Fall” activist Khaya Cekeshe, his party would do all in its power to block him and Public Enterprises Minister (Pravin Gordhan) from selling the country’s SOEs. He said the party was in consultation with other leftist organisations, especially unions to gear up for rolling mass action next year against privatisation.
“If you want to sell our assets to the Ruperts and the Oppenheimers, we will defend our assets with everything including our bodies. We will occupy the picket lines in defence of our properties. We want to say to Numsa (National Union of Metalworkers of SA), to Saftu, to Amcu and to all progressive left forces let us unite in defence of the property that belongs to our people,” Malema said.
The mass action would be started with a sit-in by EFF membership at the Eskom offices over blackouts next month.
Among the main resolutions of the party were its international relations policy which it resolved to push for the establishment of EFF outfits on the continent and for the Pan African Parliament to be given more teeth to decide on the legitimacy of African governments.
Malema warned that the country could soon degenerate into tribal infighting if the antagonism against African immigrants was not ended.
He said the country’s black majority would degenerate and attack each other along tribal lines if recurring attacks on foreign nationals were not stopped.
“When you are finished with Africans, you are going to go for each other. Africans are going to be beaten and they will leave SA. You won’t have jobs, then the new theory will start the Shangaans, the Vendas, the Zulus because there will (still) not be jobs after Africans have left.”