/ 3 July 2014

Malema: EFF will make Gauteng ungovernable

Malema suggested that the ANC in Gauteng is at odds with the leadership of President Jacob Zuma.
Malema suggested that the ANC in Gauteng is at odds with the leadership of President Jacob Zuma.

Kicking the Economic Freedom Fighters out of the Gauteng legislature will result in the province becoming ungovernable, EFF leader Julius Malema said on Thursday.

“Continuation to remove [the] EFF from legislature through unruly methods will lead to instability in this province,” Malema told reporters in Johannesburg.

“We will fight. We have the capability to mobilise our people and fight physically.”

Malema was responding to the removal of EFF MPLs from the legislature on Tuesday for wearing red overalls bearing slogans.

Police were called in when they refused to heed the speaker’s order to leave the Chamber.

“We are not scared of anything. We will bring our voters into the city and they will know who we are. They must not push because we have the capacity to fight,” Malema said.

Internal battle
Malema said the removal of the EFF MPLs was a sign of an internal battle currently raging within the African National Congress.

“It is an internal political battle more than a battle between the ANC and EFF. They are projecting Zuma as being not so reasonable. This [is] because [in] the National Assembly the ANC accepted overalls and paid attention to the ideological content of debates.”

Malema added that the ANC in Gauteng think they are better than President Jacob Zuma.

“They think they are smarter than Jacob Zuma’s collective,” he said. Adding that the ANC should remember it had not won the province during the recent election, the results of which he said were “corrupt and fraudulent”.

“The ANC lost in Gauteng. They [ANC] know what happened in Alexandra. Had we not intervened, this province would be in ashes,” said Malema.

Residents of Alexandra went on the rampage when ballot boxes were discovered in the township. Roads were barricaded with burning tyres and people were arrested.

Defying colonialism
Malema said people should not look down on workers. He said EFF members would continue wearing their attire to remind those in legislatures of who they represented.

“We are defying colonialist decorum. We are not English-made. We are workers, and we are going to wear those clothes and we are unapologetic about it,” he said.

He added, however, that the party is not forming a trade union.

“We are working with Amcu [Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union]. We are encouraging our members to join Amcu.”

Malema said the focus was on building and strengthening the EFF, as the party was set to mark one year of existence. “We have an organisation to focus on, we can’t be all over the place.”

EFF members were putting pressure on the leadership to form a union, but “we are telling them to relax and focus on building the organisation”. – Sapa