EFF have Cyril in their sights

DEPUTY President Cyril Ramaphosa can expect the same medicine that the EFF has dished out to Jacob Zuma, should he become the next president.

The opposition party’s campaign for Zuma’s removal from the Union Buildings and forcing the president to pay for the Nkandla security upgrades won the organisation favour with voters and entrenched the party.

Political analysts said the EFF would survive beyond Zuma’s tenure as head of state, given the poverty levels among poor people.

Yesterday EFF leader Julius Malema indicated that the mending of the collapsing public health system and prosecution of Ramaphosa for his role in the Marikana massacre in 2012 were high on their agenda when Zuma vacates his post.

Malema, speaking yesterday at a press conference at his party’s Braamfontein offices in Johannesburg, said his party had declared 2018 the year of public health care during which party members would visit under-performing facilities and encourage workers to expose corruption, nepotism and racism.

“This year we take pride in our five years of existence. We take pride in our indisputable unity and stability at all levels. We have given hope to domestic workers, farmer workers, security guards, petrol attendants, the landless and the unemployed.

“We have inspired the continent, giving the strongest indication yet that the alternative socialist vision still exists for a much better world in replacement of the evil system of capitalism,” he said.

Political analyst Dr Mcebisi Ndletyana said the EFF had managed to go beyond the Zuma vendetta.

“The EFF was initially a leftist militant party that had a vendetta with Zuma but it has evolved through its policies and constitution that speak to the marginalised people,” he said.

Professor Shadrack Gutto, too, said the EFF was here to stay.