Picture: @EFFSouthAfrica/Twitter
After promising to purchase a brand new Mercedes-Benz for AbaThembu King Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo, the EFF has handed over a Mercedes-Benz GLE Coupe SUV worth more than R1.8 million to the king.
The EFF on Saturday hosted a welcoming ceremony for Dalindyebo at the Nkululekweni residence in Mthatha.
The event was attended by EFF leader Julius Malema, his deputy Floyd Shivambu as well as the party’s other national leaders, including former EFF national chairperson Dali Mpofu.
Malema first made the promise to gift Dalindyebo with a brand new Mercedes-Benz SUV in October during a campaign rally in Mthatha.
At the time, the king called on his subjects to vote for the EFF in last week’s local government elections, saying he wanted to “teach the ANC a lesson”.
ALSO READ: King Dalindyebo urges subjects to vote for EFF to ‘teach the ANC a lesson’
Dalindyebo said the EFF would purchase for him a Mercedes-Benz ML SUV “fit for a king”, but it later emerged that the manufacturer discontinued the ML range.
Speaking at the ceremony on Saturday at Nkululekweni residence, Malema dismissed suggestions that they were trying to bribe the king.
He said they had always supported Dalindyebo even during his incarceration in 2015 when he was sentenced to 15 years for seven counts of kidnapping, three of assault, three of arson, one of culpable homicide and one of defeating the ends of justice.
“We are not here to bribe the king because we were with the king in prison when they all abandoned him and they decided to imprison the king. What a taboo this government did to our own AbaThembu nation,” Malema said.
“We are not going to be told by whiteness as to how we should honour and support our traditional leadership. Kumkani (king) Dalindyebo is our hero,” he added.
Mpofu said the EFF was gifting the car to Dalindyebo to make it easy for him to travel around and interact with his subjects.
He reiterated that the EFF was not giving the king the vehicle to buy his influence as a traditional leader, adding that Dalindyebo should use the Mercedes-Benz to serve his people.
“Tomorrow someone from a different political party might come and say they’re gifting the king a helicopter to surpass our gift. You must take it.
“You don’t need our permission if anybody else comes here and gives you another gift and that’s bigger than ours, take it because it is yours,” Mpofu said.
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