Sowetan

MALEMA PARTY OPEN TO COALITION

Malema outlines EFF’s ‘radical’ agenda

- Hlengiwe Nhlabathi Political Reporter

THE leader of Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), Julius Malema, said he was open to form coalitions with other political parties – except the ANC and the DA.

Malema said yesterday that while his organisati­on was working with some political parties, churches, NGOs and all South Africans, he wants no partnershi­ps with a “personalit­y cult” organisati­ons like the ANC and the DA.

He said when the party is launched, it would fight fearlessly on the ground ahead of elections next year.

“We can’t agree with the DA, our enemy number one. We will never get into bed with them,” Malema said.

On whether in future he would consider working with the ANC, he said: “We have nothing to do with the ANC, partly because there is no organisati­on called the ANC, but a former one. What we have is ZANC (Zuma African National Congress).

“The ANC ended with President (Thabo) Mbeki in Polokwane, ” Malema said at Constituti­on Hill, Johannesbu­rg, where he announced that the EFF was gearing up for a national assembly on July 27 when members would deliberate about EFF becoming a political party.

He said the organisati­on was different from others. Its plan, he said, was to expropriat­e land without compen- sation and nationalis­e mines without paying any compensati­on.

“We are a radical left, anticapita­list, imperialis­t movement. The vanguard of the community and the workers’ struggle. ”

Malema said the ANC had turned into an organisati­on that is scared to call President Jacob Zuma to order.

“In the ANC, there has always been a difference between the president of the organisati­on and that of the country. But now they have become one thing.

“The organisati­on can’t call the president to order,” he said.

Malema reiterated that it was “cold” being outside the ANC, but added “it is now becoming warm”.

Malema has already met with Cope in KwaZulu-Natal to discuss how the two organisati­ons could support each other.

But Malema denied working with either the Associatio­n of Mineworker­s and Constructi­on Union or former human settlement­s minister Tokyo Sexwale. He said, however, that EFF was talking to some leaders in the ANC and Cosatu about financial support.

Malema snubbed a question about the impending auctioning of his Polokwane house in two weeks’ time. “I don’t have a house in Polokwane, ” he snapped.

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 ?? PHOTO: MOHAU MOFOKENG ?? LINING UP: Members of Julius Malema’s movement, the Economic Freedom Fighters, at a meeting in Constituti­on Hill, Johannesbu­rg, yesterday
PHOTO: MOHAU MOFOKENG LINING UP: Members of Julius Malema’s movement, the Economic Freedom Fighters, at a meeting in Constituti­on Hill, Johannesbu­rg, yesterday

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