EFF supported DA to weaken ANC

Weakening the ANC by keeping it out of power and levelling the playing field for the EFF had been the reason behind the party’s dramatic but unsolicited support for the DA in various municipalities across the country.

This according to EFF leader Julius Malema who stressed that the latest move to help boot the ANC out of all Gauteng metros and other key municipalities was aimed at helping the red berets penetrate ANC strongholds as they shared the same constituency. ADVERTISING

Malema on Thursday said the EFF was prepared to give support to the DA even as the official opposition had rejected them.

“The ANC is our immediate competitor. When you remove the ANC in the metros, you are levelling the playing field. The ANC and the EFF in Joburg are going to meet on the streets of Soweto as equals,” Malema said.

Malema said the move to help remove the ANC from power would also limit the party’s access to resources and that this would boost his party’s growth prospects.

“The sooner I close the safe everywhere, the better for the growth of the EFF,” he remarked.

He said the EFF was setting its sights towards the 2024 general elections where it hoped to grow support provincially and nationally.

“Why must I vote for people who are going to win against me in 2024 by giving them resources?” he asked.

He blasted those within the ANC who accused him of selling out by helping put the DA in charge of key municipalities.

Malema lamented that the ANC had expelled him and that he and his party did not owe the party any help as it was losing political control.

“When they expelled me, what were they expecting? They expected to expel me and still get something from me…They must leave me alone,” he said.

Malema insisted that its backing of the DA was not on creation of a working relationship with the party but a vote against the ANC, adding that he would not be part of any negotiations with the country’s official opposition about what had to be prioritised in terms of budgets in municipalities.

He said the party would however support or reject DA programmes depending on how the party viewed them from time to time in relation to how they advanced service delivery.

Malema however hinted that the EFF had not closed the window for helping oust the DA administration if they failed to deliver.

“If you want to stay there for five years, do what is in the best interest of the people. Go and service our people. You won’t even see five years but ten years, but if you are going to serve your party and want  Helen Zille to micromanage Tshwane, Joburg and Ekurhuleni, then you are bound to fail,” he said.

Earlier in the day, Malema said the red berets, which have helped dislodge the governing party in key metros and other hung municipalities across the country, had ordered Selloane Motjeane to tender her resignation on Thursday.

“We had a meeting now with the mayor of Metsimaholo and councillors, and asked the mayor to resign with immediate effect because she became a mayor through the vote of the ANC. We don’t vote with the ANC. Anywhere when the ANC votes for us, we should not accept that,” Malema said at a briefing.

Of the 46 seats in the financially troubled municipality, the EFF and the DA control 12 seats each while the ANC has 16.

Malema said the party would be setting itself up for failure if it accepted the offer to lead the municipality at the mercy of the ANC.

“Our numbers don’t allow us to work the way we want to work there and in the absence of that agreement with the ANC, we are setting ourselves up for failure. Why should we allow ourselves to fail before we start? You can see that thing is going to fail because it is not based on anything but local dynamics and arrangements outside the national leadership’s guidance,” Malema said.

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