Economic Freedom Fighters Leader Julius Malema has called on the 400 councillors, MPLs and MPs, who failed to bus supporters in for the party’s 10th-anniversary celebrations to “just resign”.
Almost 100,000 EFF supporters painted the FNB Stadium in Joburg in a sea of red at the weekend as the red beret party representatives contributed to bussing in their constituents after being ordered to do so by the party’s Central Command Team (CCT) in January.
Speaking during an EFF press conference on Wednesday, Malema said the EFF was not a home for “deadwood” and “lazy” public representatives, saying MPs, MPLs and councillors would be held accountable for not contributing to the party.
“You have an MP who comes from Malamulele, who doesn’t give you a single bus. He is an MP since 2014. And then you have a councillor from Malamulele, who gives you one bus, but the MP doesn’t give you one bus, and then I must accept that,” Malema said.
“You are so used to people not being held accountable, it’s not going to happen in the EFF and the majority of them are going to be removed,” he said.
“They will be listened to one by one from next week, and then the rest of them are going to be requested to leave their positions.”
The 400 public representatives were uninvited for the birthday rally.
The most senior EFF public representative who failed to provide transport, was former EFF KZN chairperson Vusi Khoza, who is an MP.
Khoza helped oversea massive EFF growth in the KZN province when the red berets “fighters” quadrupled its support in KZN from under 70,000 votes in the 2014 general elections, to over 300,000 at the last general elections in 2019.
Khoza told Daily News that he was expected to bus in people from KZN in 20 buses, with each bus costing R36,000. He said this would cost over R700,000, which was expected to be achieved in a period of six months.
Malema explained the criteria for bussing in supporters was not the same, explaining that public representatives in Johannesburg and Gauteng had to contribute more as they were closer to the event venue.
Joburg councillor — contribute five buses
Gauteng councillors — five buses
Rest of SA councillors — one bus
Gauteng MPLs — 15 buses each
Other SA MPLs — 10 buses
Rest of SA MPs — 20 buses
Gauteng-based MPs — 50 buses
Malema said the EFF had over 1,200 public representatives in the country and most of the EFF programmes were self-funded through the monies generated from the IEC, Parliament and party levies from.
He said if publication representatives defected to the ANC, he does not care, “let them go”.
“Why must I think I have 10 people when I have five, let me plan with the five I have. Let me struggle with the people who brought buses to the FNB, who shut down the stadium, those are my soldiers,” Malema said.
“If I were them, I would just resign. The EFF has 1,200 public representatives and 400 of them don’t get a single bus, how are they helping the growth of the organisation, what value are they bringing?”
Malema said hearings with the 400 public representatives would be held from next week. He said they would be given an opportunity to make representations, but has already conceded that most of them would be shown the door.
“You are told from January to bring a bus, you fail from January until July. If that thing is going to kill the EFF, let it kill it,” he said.
“We are not going to hang around with lazy people. Your stay in the EFF depends on your contribution. We are not on a holiday here, we don’t want deadwood here,” Malema said.
“We are going to check how many votes the EFF receives where they come from. We are going to check how many votes they get where they come from.”
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