EFF leader Julius Malema Photo: Lulama Zenzile
- Julius Malema believes that his party will receive five MMC seats in Ekurhuleni this week.
- Last week, the EFF elected Nthabiseng Tshivhenga as interim president.
- The DA-led coalition is likely to lose power.
Having elected Nthabiseng Tshivhenga as interim president in Ekurhuleni metro, the EFF is in line for at least five Mayoral Committee (MMC) member positions in the municipality.
Addressing the EFF Free State Provincial Plenum on Sunday afternoon, Julius Malema said that, having joined forces with the ANC and other smaller parties, the EFF was poised to win more MMC positions in Ekurhuleni.
“Comrades, we have two MMCs in Johannesburg. This week, if all goes well, we will have five MMCs in Ekurhuleni,” Malema said.
He revealed that as part of his party’s new compromise arrangement with the ANC, in which they agreed where neither had an absolute majority to govern a municipality, both would support a mayor from a smaller party, while reaping the benefits of receiving influential MMC positions.
“Here in the Free State we are negotiating with the Metsimaholo Local Municipality because we can come in there too, but we refuse to come under the ANC, so we came up with a new strategy now that we prefer to have a small party mayor because we cannot have each other and serve under each other.
READ | Why EFF members are resigning en masse from Parliament and provincial legislatures
“We would prefer to have MMC posts and run our own governments, so we will do it in the local Maluti-a-Phofung municipality,” Malema said.
The ANC took advantage of the collapse of the talks between the DA and its coalition partners and succeeded in drawing the Patriotic Alliance into a coalition with itself, the EFF and other smaller parties, such as Al Jama-ah and the Freedom Party. National.
This apparent coalition of convenience has succeeded in ousting Mpho Phalatse as the district attorney and instead electing Thapelo Amad of Al Jama-ah as the new mayor of Joburg.
Following this triumph, the EFF-ANC led coalition shook things up in the Ekurhuleni council, where things had been left in limbo due to ongoing political bickering in their chambers.
On Thursday night, the Speaker, Raymond Dhlamini, withdrew after a motion of no confidence in him.
This paved the way for Tshivhenga to be elected acting president.
As the last motion of no confidence in Ekurhuleni mayor Tania Campbell took place in October, she is safe – for now – as the next motion against her may not take place until April.
READ | New ‘elected’ speaker, confidence motion rule passed despite Ekurhuleni meeting collapse
Despite this, Malema was confident that there was a shakeup in the metro.
Despite the association with the ANC, Malema encouraged those present during his speech on Sunday that EFF members needed to start reassuring citizens that life would go on even after a ruling coalition was removed from power.
“We are here today to plan for the year ahead. We need to embark on massive political education and voter registration.
“We must make our people aware so that they know that the ANC is not synonymous with politics, they think that when you say politics, you mean the ANC,” Malema said.
He added that part of the duty of the political parties was to “make the communities aware of what other alternatives they had for them.”
