EFF leader Julius Malema. (Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Ahead of its Tshela Thupa rally this Saturday, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) president Julius Malema said the party would accept the outcome of the 29 May elections.
“We will accept the willingness of the voice of the people of SA. Whatever the outcome, we will not have a query because we campaigned and no one stopped us, we spoke to our people and no one stopped us,” he said.
He added that political parties must secure their votes on 29 May and refrain from complaining after the elections.
Speaking to the media on the sidelines of his final campaign in Seshego on Friday, he said the EFF had done “everything humanly possible” with limited resources to ensure the party had an effective campaign.
Malema added that the EFF was confident that the EFF’s message had resonated with South Africans.
The EFF is aiming to remove the Democratic Alliance (DA) from remaining the official opposition and to gain one million votes in Gauteng and another million in KwaZulu-Natal and try to.
The EFF is hoping to gain enough votes to leverage for positions should the party go into coalitions. The DA has said it has no interest in going into a coalition with the EFF.
Former ANC president Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party and his popularity in KwaZulu-Natal is seen as a threat to the EFF, ANC and the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP).
Following an appeal by the Electoral Commission of South Africa, the constitutional court ruled that Zuma could not run for parliament because he had been found guilty of contempt of court and sentenced to imprisonment of more than 12 months.
On Friday, a warning of possible protests in KwaZulu-Natal was issued by security company Fidelity, following a similar notice by banking group FirstRand on Thursday, News24 reported.
The report added that the KwaZulu-Natal police were working with the South African National Defence Force, crime intelligence and private security companies to avert possible violence, both on election day and after the 29 May polls.
Malema dismissed the threat analysis saying the EFF was not concerned about any possible riots and that the MK party was not a threat.
“Our security forces in this country are well-equipped to handle any situation that might arise. We don’t see any reason why there would be a threat. We have made sure that in each and every polling station, there is an EFF agent to guard the votes of the EFF.
“We have established a unit called Mlungisi Malamlela battalion, which is on standby. Once a person says in this station or that station there are no party agents, there is no visible EFF, we instruct the nearby college, university or campus to deploy immediately into that particular voting station to secure the vote,” he said.
He added that political parties must secure their votes on 29 May and refrain from complaining after the elections.
“From where we are, we are solid on the ground. We are everywhere,” he said.