DESPITE police efforts to disperse an alleged illegal gathering by the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), party members refused to take instructions and continued with their meeting at eSikhaleni’s H2 section last Thursday.
Their one year anniversary event was scheduled for the University of Zululand campus, but according to them, they were denied permission. The EFF believed this to be deliberate sabotage, however university officials denied these allegations.
EFF uThungulu spokesperson, Nkululeko Ngubane, said they had booked Unizulu for their special event, but were asked to remove leader Julius Malema’s name from the guest list.
‘When we sent the first email, we mentioned that Malema would be attending.
‘Because we couldn’t get another venue at short notice, we decided to use an open space in eSikhaleni.
‘We were also denied the venue at Umfolozi FET College after we had paid. I’m surprised they now call this an illegal gathering, because we went to the police to inform them to be around because we would have provincial leaders present,’ Ngubane said.
‘This was a clear case of sabotage because some people deem eSikhaleni as their stronghold and don’t believe we actually have members here. We don’t have a problem with those people, only our people’s rights.’
Provincial leader Magdalene Moonsamy, in her keynote address, said, ‘We will not be intimidated by the police. The aim of this event is to come to our people and inform them about the new process and celebrate our first anniversary.’
In a statement University of Zululand Director of Communication and Marketing, Normah Zondo, said, ‘We received a request from a representative of the Economic Freedom Fighters to book a venue for a meeting on campus. The available venue, the Student Centre, was granted to them on Thursday, 17 July. The EFF accepted the venue granted but chose not to use it. It is therefore untrue that permission was refused for the EFF to use the university venue.’
eSikhaleni police spokesperson, Lt Thembinkosi Mkhumane, said police tried to disperse the crowd because their meeting in a public place was not authorised.
