EFF achieved mission to push ANC under 50%: Julius Malema

The EFF is not fazed by not winning municipalities outright: as long as the ANC stands at less than 50% in some municipalities, it is mission accomplished.

This is according to party leader Julius Malema who was addressing journalists on Thursday afternoon on the party's performance in the 2021 local government elections.

The EFF was not going to completely collapse an organisation like the ANC with more than a century in existence when it was barely a decade old, he said. But the red berets were certain about one thing, “we are eating the elephant piece by piece,” said Malema.

“Politics is difficult, it is no child’s play. We are still very young, I am 40 and Floyd [Shivambu] is 38. We are shaking the ANC properly, shaking well-resourced ministers, deputy ministers, mayors, councillors, all with resources.

“And former president Thabo Mbeki, Kgalema Motlanthe, Jacob Zuma and Cyril Ramaphosa, we are klapping them and put them below 50%.”

Malema said with the most hung municipalities since democracy, the EFF was ready to get into bed with anyone, so long as they agreed on terms.

Whoever wanted to form a coalition government with the EFF, he said, must meet all conditions, which include provisions of basic services such as water within an agreed time frame.

In the horse-trading that will unfold once the results have been announced, Malema said the EFF would demand to be given municipalities that it would run on its own.

Should no-one meet its conditions, the EFF was ready to sit in opposition benches.

“The EFF will engage with all political parties that will approach us to engage to constitute governments in different municipalities.

“We are not going to do a coalition of positions. We are prepared to vote for people to go into government as long as we have an agreement with them, without taking up any positions.

“The coalition agreement must be implementable programmes that have time frames, not some contract with no time frames.

“We need things that are going to be done and be done now, and our people must see that. We do not have to be inside to do that, as long as you agree to do it, why not, we can vote for you,” he went on.

“If no-one agrees with us, we are prepared to sit in opposition benches and play our role as opposition. We are not in a hurry for anything.”

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