/ 17 March 2014

Malema confident over EFF candidates’ chances

EFF leader Julius Malema.
EFF leader Julius Malema.

EFF leader Julius Malema is confident about the list of candidates the party has submitted to the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC), he said on Monday.

"There won't be a province where we won't be in charge," Malema told reporters in Johannesburg.

"The leadership we have today will have the capacity to address the issues of the people. "There is no chair that we are not contesting this year. It is only us and the ANC that has 830 candidates listed," he said.

Some of the listed candidates were members of other political parties that would not be contesting the elections independently, he said.

Those parties included the Socialist Party of Azania (Sopa) and the Black Consciousness Party (BCP).

A Democratic Alliance (DA) Limpopo MPL Meisie Kennedy was also among the Economic Freedom Fighters' candidates. 

"The South African Constitution embraces freedom of movement. When [I] met Malema it felt like the perfect fit. Like a hand in a glove," she said.

'Remedy'
"I saw the EFF as a remedy for our people to be taken out of poverty. I am concerned [about] our people," she said.

"If the DA is unhappy with that, they must fire her," Malema said.

Members of the Sopa and BCP present at the announcement of the listed candidates said they aligned with the EFF because they had common ideologies and the party's struggle for land redistribution and economic freedom resonated with their own parties' vision.

Malema, along with lawyer Dali Mpofu and Shivambu, handed over the party's candidate lists last Wednesday.

Malema is the party's presidential candidate, while Shivambu is number four on the party's national list, and Mpofu is listed as the EFF's Gauteng premier candidate.

Second on the list is Mpho Ramakatsa, a former ANC member. In 2012, he attempted to have the Free State's ANC conference declared unconstitutional and have Premier Ace Magashule removed from his post.

Shivambu is the ANC Youth League’s former spokesperson. In 2012, he was suspended for three years from the ANC.

The EFF's national spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi is eighth and the national co-ordinator Andile Mngxitama was 10th.

The top 10 names of the party are:
1. Julius Malema
2. Mpho Ramakatsa
3. Leigh-Ann Mathys
4. Floyd Shivambu
5. Hlengiwe Hlophe
6. Godrich Gardee
7. Magdalene Moonsamy
8. Mbuyiseni Ndlozi
9. Teboho Mokwele
10. Andile Mngxitama

Three members of Sopa, including its president Lybon Mabasa, are part of the EFF's candidate list.

Three members of the BCP, including its deputy president Nkosi Molala, and two members of South Africa First are also listed as EFF candidates.

Provincial premier candidates
Eastern Cape – Themba Wele
Gauteng – Dali Mpofu
KwaZulu-Natal – Vusi Khoza
Limpopo – Mike Mathebe
Mpumalanga – Collen Sedibe
North West – Alfred Motsi
Northern Cape – Aubrey Baartman
Western Cape – Nazier Paulsen