EFF increasingly looks like a good bet

THE EFF Soshanguve rally was a mightily impressive event, full of rousing speeches and lofty promises like doubling social grants. The EFF, which has yet to run as much as a village municipal council on its own, will find it a lot more difficult to fulfil generous election promises, as the ANC found out after 1994.

We all take different positives and negatives out of CIC Julius Malema’s rousing speech.

There were many encouraging factors.

The most encouraging part of the CIC’s speech for me was his brave and stolid condemnation of xenophobia, which is contaminating Mzansi. He pointed out that Africa’s borders were, in any case, drawn up by the European colonialist land grabbers in 1892, and specifically the Boers and English invaders in our own country.

The EFF is therefore the only brave major political party to buck the trend of disgusting and dangerous Afrophobic postulation, first shamefully propagated for political gain by the right-wing DA and subsequently by the ANC, so as not to be left behind in the bigotry stakes.

I was disgusted when listening to an SAFM afternoon talk show last week after news of the Durban Metro Council raids on spaza shops. The radio host disgustingly orchestrated a frenzy of xenophobic hate speech. There was a full three hours allowed by the bigoted host of caustic and highly irresponsible Afrophobic invective.

It is encouraging to see the EFF is not following that irresponsible path, and is showing up the DA and ANC bigots and the section of the media who parrot the hate speech like sycophantic puppets.

I do have doubts about Malema’s vilification of new NPA boss Shamila Batohi. Maybe he fears she will come after the EFF and is taking the stance of the best form of defence is attack?

But, given the EFF’s strong anti-xenophobic stance, my precious vote is tilting strongly towards the Red Berets.

DR PRERTY TSHISEVHE Northcliff