This elective conference was not funded by VBS money, says EFF

Registration for the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) second elective conference is currently under way at the University of Johannesburg (UJ).

A total of 3,800 delegates are expected, a total of 2,100 guests have already registered, and 61 of 76 expected buses have already arrived at UJ.

Clearing the allegations and questions on whether the conference was funded with VBS bank money, the EFF treasurer-general Leigh Mathys said the EFF conference was self-funded, adding that the party’s income stream had doubled, in accordance with the doubling of provincial legislatures and parliamentary seats when compared with the previous election victory.

“The EFF conference is self-funded, there is no VBS money or any other private funders involved,” Mathys said.

R32 million was budgeted for the conference, but this figure is expected to increase.

Responding to Sanef’s statement on why they could not accommodate all media houses who applied to attend the conference, EFF secretary-general Godrich Gardee said: “In excess of 625 media personnel applied for accreditation, it was practically impossible to have 625 media personnel.”

Gardee said the EFF has a good relationship with all media houses, except those who have an “agenda” with the EFF.

“You know what our [position] with ANN7 and Daily Maverick, there is no listing of the ban, we have a right [of] association with other media except those who are actually politicians,” Gardee explained.

The EFF laid out the number of delegates expected to attend the conference per province, excluding international guests and embassies:

Western Cape – 106

Northern Cape – 156

Mpumalanga – 428

North West – 388

Limpopo – 596

KwaZulu-Natal – 532

Gauteng – 536

Free State – 236

Eastern Cape – 442

The EFF also invited the former presidents of the Students Command and the current top five members.

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