EFF leader Julius Malema. Picture: Jacques Nelles
Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema has received both praise and condemnation on social media for saying he would give the African National Congress (ANC) the EFF vote with a condition.
As multiple polls and and political analysts predict the ruling party will receive less than 50% of the vote in the upcoming elections, Malema told JJ Tabane on Frank Dialogue on Thursday evening that he would give the party his EFF vote with a condition.
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“I am prepared to give the EFF vote to the ANC nationally if it doesn’t get 50%. I don’t need the glory of being a deputy president or president. I will make one demand: make Floyd Shivambu minister of finance. That’s all.”
Malema explained that he did not have to occupy the highest seat in office to implement EFF policies – which is what he needed most.
“The problem with these big parties is that they’re driven by ego; they can’t differentiate between power and glory.
“Once we take finance, because that’s where the problem is and President Cyril Ramaphosa knows that… The problem in this country is the department of finance which engages in anti-poor policies.”
He said although the EFF was not in power in the City of Joburg during Herman Mashaba’s tenure as mayor, EFF policies were implemented.
“If I’ve got this power which can influence decisions… I am not obsessed with being president or deputy president,” he said.
Malema further defended his party from accusations of corruption, claiming that VBS allegations were “engineered” to discredit the EFF.
Earlier this year, parliament’s Joint Committee on Ethics and Members’ Interests resolved to dock Shivambu’s pay after finding he failed to disclose R180 000 he received from Sgameka Projects in 2017.
Sgameka Projects was implicated in the looting of VBS Mutual Bank. The company is owned by Shivambu’s brother, Brian.
Shivambu, however, approached the Western Cape High Court with an urgent application to deduct his salary.
Shivambu argued that the investigation against him was unfair as he did not know what allegations he was facing before Parliament’s decision was made.
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The court struck his application off the roll.
“The VBS was engineered to discredit the EFF,” said Malema.
“The EFF government is not corrupt in Ekurhuleni. For so many months they have been in power and you never arrested or accused any of them of any wrongdoing. The EFF government is not corrupt in Johannesburg.
“You have an MMC of public safety and health, our MMC in eThekwini, who was removed for being at the forefront of service delivery, who is not corrupt. We have two MMCs in Nelson Mandela Bay, there is no corruption.
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“The EFF is intolerant on corruption now, it will be in future, even internally in the EFF, look at how we run our affairs.”
Additional reporting by Gareth Cotterell
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