EFF cosies up to De Lille in Brandfort

Photographs of embattled Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille with the leadership of the EFF in Brandfort have sparked great interest on Twitter, with speculation that she may be about to leave the DA, which is trying to unseat her from her job, and join the EFF.

She addressed crowds of mourners at the EFF’s memorial service for the late Winnie Madikizela-Mandela in the Free State town to which she was banished in the 1970s.

Although representatives from other parties, including the ANC, have attended the memorial, the presence of De Lille so far from Cape Town have raised questions about what she’s doing cosying up to the top brass of the EFF in this manner.

The DA attempted to have her ousted in a motion of no confidence vote in Cape Town earlier this year, but not all their councillors supported it. The EFF also voted against De Lille’s removal.

The DA believes she is guilty of abuse of power and corruption and wants her gone for bringing the party into disrepute.

The EFF, however, was very welcoming of her on Wednesday.

In her address, De Lille said, among other things, that she had “learnt from Mama Winnie that politics is not for sissies”.

She said that today’s politicians were “plastic” and “there for their stomachs”.

She had harsh words for Madikizela-Mandela’s critics, charging that those who “never even lifted a finger in fighting against the struggle” had no right to say a word.

“Who are you?” she said.

She added that when she’d last seen Madikizela-Mandela the struggle stalwart had asked her about her troubles with the DA: “The last time I spoke to her she asked, ‘What are those boys doing to you?’ I said: “Don’t worry Mama, I have this under control,’ and I remember fondly that husky voice and her laughter.”

She reminisced over marching with Mama Winnie against Thabo Mbeki’s government to demand ARVs for South Africans.

“Winnie, I want to say hambe kahle my sister, mother of the nation, flower of the nation. Mama was tough, but she cried with us.”

She later joked that Mama Winnie might “start an ANC branch, or EFF, possibly” when she got to heaven.

Have a look at some of the reaction below: