Malema alleges Ramaphosa is thinking of calling early elections

EFF leader Julius Malema has alleged that the rumours circulating in the ANC that President Cyril Ramaphosa is considering holding early elections are true.

He was addressing a rally in Nelson Mandela Bay ahead of his party’s motion of no confidence against the DA’s mayor Athol Trollip.

Hitting out at the ANC, he said that the euphoria around Ramaphosa’s rise was misplaced.

“We have exposed the ‘new dawn’ as an ‘old dawn’ … not even in a new bottle of Dawn lotion, it’s actually in an old Dawn bottle. There is nothing new about Cyril Ramaphosa; there’s nothing new about the ANC.”

He charged that the governing party had struggled to find someone in their party who was free of corruption and that the ANC had “begged” the EFF to return Johannesburg to them, while they were less capable of taking over Port Elizabeth and Tshwane because “there is no coherent ANC in Port Elizabeth and Tshwane”.

He then said Ramaphosa was seriously considering bringing elections earlier to capitalise on his apparent current popularity. Malema said that those who had advised Ramaphosa to consider this strategy were misguiding him, as he was not nearly as popular as he may think.

“But he can bring them [early elections]. We are ready.”

He said the “white-owned media” had created the false impression that Ramaphosa was popular, but Zuma was actually far more popular among people on the ground, something that could be gauged by the size of the crowds that flocked around Zuma wherever he went, compared with how Ramaphosa allegedly struggles to have the same effect.

He accused Ramaphosa of weakness, joking that the nickname of ‘buffalo’ for the president was misplaced, and that he is actually no stronger than a sardine. Having lots of money did not make him powerful or genuinely charismatic.

The fact that he had a secretary-general, Ace Magashule, who could “contradict him at every turn” was presented, among other things, as evidence of Ramaphosa’s weakness.