The organisation will not form coalitions with any political party
The EFF made its own state of the nation address on Thursday and issued a few recommendations on how South Africa can find resolutions to state capture, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan’s summons and the crisis in tertiary education.
Speaking from the EFF’s headquarters in Braamfontein, Malema referred to the Gupta family as a “criminal syndicate” that has “total control” over the president.
“The recent charges against the minister of finance is part of the Guptas’ way of forcing the minister of finance into resignation so that they can deploy their own puppet to the ministry of finance and use it for continued looting of state resources,” Malema said.
The EFF has said it will support Gordhan against the charges of fraud that have been laid against him. The party also called for NPA chief Shaun Abrahams’ resignation, saying his office has compromised its independence.
“Abrahams should immediately resign as NDPP because his prosecutorial decisions are not meant to find justice, but to pursue political interests of a Gupta-led faction and criminal syndicate that runs South Africa,” Malema said.
Public protector Thuli Madonsela is expected to release her report on Zuma’s involvement with the Gupta family and state capture on Friday. The EFF expressed support for the report, saying treasury had presented compelling evidence against Zuma, which he alleges is part of the reason why charges have been pressed against Gordhan.
The Madonsela report
The EFF leader said he was one of the people who had submitted evidence to the public protector’s office against Zuma. According to Malema, the evidence treasury provided incriminates Zuma on money laundering and racketeering charges.
Although the president has requested to speak with all those who submitted evidence to Madonsela’s office, Malema said that he will not allow Zuma to interview him, because he “is a stupid”.
“I’m one of them that gave evidence to Madonsela,” he said. “I will never grant Zuma an interview.”
The EFF president also criticised the president’s ministerial task team on higher education for its exclusion of the finance minister, while pledging support for the students.
“University shutdown must continue”
Malema said he agreed that universities should shut down because if they continued as normal, no one would listen to the student protesters.
“I think the shutdown must continue until free education is provided. There’s not any other way this government will listen. The reality is that our government has collapsed,” Malema said.
He said the EFF will be tabling a proposal on how free education can be funded in South Africa, maintaining that it is possible.
“There is money in South Africa to fund fee free education for all and what is needed is the political will and determination of the political leadership,” Malema said.
A day of action
The party’s proposed immediate solution to the crisis in the finance ministry, tertiary education and state capture is to protest in Pretoria on November 2 – the day Gordhan has been instructed to go to court. The EFF has already obtained permission for the march and told businesses to close shop.
“Every street in Pretoria must be occupied,” Malema said.
“We can not guarantee the safety of businesses on that day and therefore we advise them to shut down.”
Malema called on citizens to join the protest where the EFF will demand free education to be implemented in 2017, Zuma’s resignation, the Guptas’ removal from state contracts and the country, and Abrahams’ resignation.