Malema launches EFF manifesto
THE EFF wants the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to be declared a Chapter 9 institution, accountable to Parliament like the offices of the Auditor-general and the Public Protector.
The party’s 168-page manifesto, launched at Giant Stadium in Soshanguve, Pretoria , yesterday, stated that the aim was to guarantee its independence in the fight against corruption and crime.
To achieve this, EFF leader Julius Malema said, in notes contained in the foreword, that the party would amend the Constitution to stop selective prosecution and fight corruption.
Addressing thousands of supporters, Malema said he did not trust the newly appointed National Director of Public Prosecutions, Shamila Batohi, who started in her new position on Friday.
“I don’t trust the new head of the NPA. She is too close to Pravin Gordhan (Public Enterprises Minister),” he said.
Batohi was appointed by President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Malema said his party if it ruled would appoint an independent head of the NPA to prosecute everyone, whether they were party members or not.
The party’s manifesto was based on feedback it received from different sectors through public consultations, letters to different organisations, social media and oral submissions, its founding documents and experience from participating in the national and provincial legislatures and municipal councils.
Under its 2019 election slogan, Our Land and Jobs Now!, the EFF undertakes to redistribute land in a demographically representative way to allow black people to take control of most of it.
Malema said the ANC government promised 30% of the land for restitution but had delivered only 7% since 1994.
The party has rejected Ramaphosa’s national minimum wage of R3 500 a month. Instead, if it gained power, it would set the minimum wage for the lowest-paid workers at R4500 a month for full-time waitrons and cleaners and R12500 for mineworkers.
He said the EFF cabinet would be energetic and made up of young men and women. There would be no deputy ministers and members of the executive would not receive housing from the government, he added.
The party wants public representatives and public servants to forfeit their pension benefits if found guilty of corruption.
“Any person who steals from government is stealing from the poor,” said Malema, adding that politicians guilty of corruption would face 20 years in prison.
Under its administration, racism would be declared a punishable criminal offence.
The EFF promised a 6% economic growth rate in the first two years of its rule and 10% in the next three through interventions such as expanding Eskom’s capacity by providing environmentally friendly power from coal, nuclear and renewable sources of energy.
“We will ensure that the nuclear we will introduce does not cripple the economy. Not Zuma’s nuclear,” Malema said, referring to the controversial nuclear deal former president Jacob Zuma’s administration sought with Russia.