EFF backs Ramaphosa’s Nene move

Daniel Friedman

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) yesterday expressed their support for President Cyril Ramaphosa’s decision to accept former finance minister Nhlanhla Nene’s resignation.

The party apparently prioritised Nene’s removal last week through the Twitter accounts of both the party and its leader, Julius Malema, who “tried to warn” SA about Nene.

The statement also mentioned new Finance Minister Tito Mboweni.

“We note the appointment of Mboweni as minister of finance and impress on him to prioritise the interests of the people of South Africa, in particular the poor, black South Africans who suffer poverty, unemployment and hunger.”

However, some have suggested that the appointment of Mboweni may have left EFF leaders smiling behind the scenes. Back in April, the minister expressed ideas on economic policy that some pointed out bore more than a passing resemblance to the radical leftwing party’s ideas.

The Citizen reported in September that the EFF and Mboweni have been surprisingly friendly with each other recently, with Mboweni trending in April for a series of tweets, which called for the greater socialisation of capital.

Mboweni typed a short prayer asking for leaders to open their eyes and ears and “do four things”.

“The state must own 40% of mining companies, start a state bank, implement appropriate land use planning and create a sovereign wealth fund. That is radical economic transformation!”

The EFF also wants to create a state bank and nationalise all mining, as well as all land.

Mboweni explained that, in his opinion, appropriate land use planning would involve demarcating land clearly for “housing, agriculture, grazing, forestry, tourism, leisure, schooling, hospitals, etc. Now, before people do their own will.” He said the most urgent task in this respect would be to “allocate land immediately for residential purposes. Urgent. Really URGENT!”

This policy echoed the EFF call for all state land to be stateowned or controlled.

Many of the responses he received to his tweets accused him of thinking like the EFF or even being part of them. Others praised him for the exact same thing.

The most urgent task would be to allocate land immediately for residential purposes. Urgent!

Tito Mboweni tweet