JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - FEBRUARY 14: Julius Malema and Sakina Kamwendo during the South African national football team arrival at OR Tambo Airport on February 14, 2024 in Johannesburg, South Africa. (Photo by Lefty Shivambu/Gallo Images)
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) is a revolutionary, radical, militant and fearless emancipation movement founded in South Africa and expanding to Africa.
Since the formation on 26 July, 2013, we have grown in strength and have 44 members of parliament and are represented in all nine legislatures in South Africa with over 1 200 councillors.
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Our manifesto, our battle cry for this year’s election is: “Our land and jobs now! Stop load shedding!”
The EFF is the only organisation that has brought the land question to the fore and escalated it all the way to parliament.
Our achievements include fighting gender-based violence and insourcing of security guards and cleaners.
We believe freedom without access to economic emancipation is meaningless and that is why we are entering the elections with the intention of winning.
Nothing much has changed since the dawn of democracy, because in 1994 the majority of the land belonged to the white people and the same is true in 2024.
In 1994, the economy was in the hands of white people and that has not changed after 30 years. There is no freedom without free education and flushing toilets.
Under the ANC there’s no freedom as our people are without jobs, electricity and health care services. We are saying load shedding must stop because we are in darkness now.
Load shedding has destroyed lives, jobs and education. The EFF manifesto is about commitments and not promises.
We plan on implementing all our commitments because our manifesto was not sponsored by any businessman.
It is the product of the people – from security guards, to teachers, domestic workers and all those who are suffering.
Our commitment is that we are going to take back the land. We are going to go back to parliament and change Section 25 of the constitution and make it explicit that land will be taken without compensation.
Majority of the land will be given back to women and young people. Redistribution of land will be done rapidly, 51% to be done by the end of 2025.
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We are going to create jobs (skilled and unskilled) through social housing and road infrastructure and this will create four million jobs.
One million will be created from the insourcing of security guards. We must prioritise trading among Africans to grow the African economies.
Western companies can leave because we have China and the rest of Africa. We need to decentralise our economy and incentivise people who open factories in the rural areas.
We need to begin to produce goods that we use daily to illustrate a working economy. The EFF will create nine million jobs through ending load shedding.
The government of the EFF will end load shedding within six months of taking over government. We are going to reactivate coal fired stations and introduce 6 000 megawatts nuclear energy.
Municipalities will be given grants to implement hybrid and off-the-grid electricity solutions.
The EFF will assist the municipal-ities in grant applications. The EFF will introduce free decolonised education and 40 000 posts will be created for early childhood development, with 50% of those to be occupied by women or young people.
Higher education will be free and students will not be left with government debt upon completion of their studies.
We need to reclaim our streets and our country and introduce harsh sentences for criminals – especially those who point guns at the police.
This will result in a 25-year jail sentence without pardon. Police salaries will increase with incentives for catching dangerous criminals.
Police members must maintain shape under the EFF because they must always be fit for purpose. The army needs to be revamped because army infrastructure has collapsed.
From land to sea to air, the army must be retrained in order to assist police in fighting crime and assisting in preventing dangerous weapons from entering the country.
Under the EFF, doctors will do their six months’ community service because we never want doctors to be unemployed.
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Clinics will operate for 24 hours. Under the EFF, the social grants will increase for the elderly to R4 000, veterans to receive R4 200 and for the child support grant to increase to R1 200.
We will also introduce a graduate fund where unemployed matriculants will get R1 000, unemployed graduates R3 000 and those with honours degrees R4 000.
The EFF will nationalise the mines. And work with the Chinese, Russians and other African states to build infrastructure.
We need to prioritise housing and ensure that homes are built flushing toilets inside. Apartheid names must be removed from our streets and replaced with iconic Africans such as Steve Biko.
• Malema is the commander-in-chief of the Economic Freedom Fighters
• The Citizen invites all political parties and independent candidates to submit 650 words on why you believe people should vote for you. These will be run between now and election day on 29 May. Submissions can be sent to the news editor: amandaw@citizen.co.za
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