Malema declares he and the EFF are now running South Africa

In a wide-ranging interview published in the Mail & Guardian on Friday, Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema told the weekly the ANC has run out of ideas and the EFF has now filled the void left by the ruling’s party’s lack of policy direction.

He also said the EFF was confident it could win the 2019 general elections or at least double its votes, which would take the party to 50 seats or more in the National Assembly. Should that correspond with a drop to below 50% of the overall vote for the ANC, that would give the EFF a huge say in government, as coalition politics would then become the order of the day.

He said he could “guarantee” at least such a doubling for his party.

Malema dismissed the initial euphoria, called “Ramaphoria”, over the election of Cyril Ramaphosa as president as little more than a “honeymoon phase”.

Along with the party’s recent success at passing a motion on land expropriation without compensation, backed by the ANC and numerous other parties, the EFF now also wants to convert Postbank into a state bank.

But Malema dismissed speculation that this new spirit of cooperation with the ANC means he may be returning to his former political home.

He was quoted saying: “The ANC has actually moved closer to us; we have not moved closer to the ANC.”

He claimed the ANC had implemented “95%” of the conditions the EFF had given them, which put the removal of Jacob Zuma as president at the top of the list as well reinstating corruption charges against him.

The ANC has recently tried to cosy up to Malema, in the apparent hope that the EFF will return the lost hung metros of Nelson Mandela Bay, Johannesburg and Tshwane to ANC control. Ramaphosa said earlier this month he would welcome Malema back into the ANC.

Malema, however, told the M&G he would sooner quit politics altogether than return to the ANC.

He also dismissed accusations that if he turned his back on any agreements with the DA in the hung metros he would be betraying his voters. Malema is looking to punish the DA by removing Athol Trollip as Nelson Mandela Bay mayor over the party’s opposition to the EFF motion on land expropriation without compensation.

The EFF leader faced accusations of racism this month for saying that he would be getting rid of the white man running the metro, while threatening to “cut the DA’s throat”.