POLITRICKING | EFF leader criticises ANC's 'arrogance', takes aim at Shivambu and dismisses Helen Zille's mayoral bid

The arrival of the EFF on the political scene 12 years ago no doubt left a mark on South Africa’s political landscape. Now a preteen, the party experienced a difficult 2024 - marked by a slight decline at the polls and a massive tectonic shift when its deputy, Floyd Shivambu, quit to join former President Jacob Zuma’s Umkhonto weSizwe party.

Since then, it’s been up to the Reds’ leader, Julius Malema, to steer the organisation through stormy waters. He’s focused on giving supporters a clear line of march and forging a path toward some semblance of stability, much of which he believes has been achieved since Shivambu’s shock exit in August last year.

Malema, the firebrand politician, who hails from Limpopo, was this week’s Politricking with Tshidi Madia, an EWN politics podcast guest.

The interview which spanned well over an hour delivered salvo after salvo, including Malema’s thoughts on various issues such as his organisation at 12-years, its role in parliament, the upcoming local government elections and his own version of some of the seminal moments in the country’s recent political history and developments in his organisation.

 While he had had little to say, publicly, about Shivambu in recent days, who’s now holding a consultative process to assess if indeed he should launch a political party, Malema had choice words for claims his former deputy has levelled against the EFF, which include labelling it as a cult and autocratic.

“How do you leave EFF and say it's an organisation of dictators, and you go into an organisation of a person who can make a decree, a president can make a decree? There's no such a thing in the EFF where I can just wake up and announce that the whole thing is reshuffled. We've got a new team,” said Malema.

 His criticism of Shivambu didn’t end there.

 “You say I never say anything about Floyd… you know why? He never dared to say that thing to me, here, [to] my face, he had access to me in private, in public, so why would I entertain such a coward?”

“He never dared to say those things he is saying about me… if he’s that strong and political. He never tried chances to remove me from within the party, then you want to remove me from outside?” he continued.

Malema shared similar sentiments at the mention of former EFF national chairperson Advocate Dali Mpofu and their former national spokesperson Mbuyiseni Nldozi, the latter, unlike the other pair didn’t the MKP. 

Malema even claimed that some of those working alongside his former deputy had called him seeking to return to the red berets and was seemingly unfazed at the idea of some in his own camp reaching out to Shivambu.

“They can call him. They can go; I don't have a problem. They can go… They are not the best of society. We did many of them favours. That’s when we were trying to attract quantity, now we are working with quality,” he said.

His firm take on those who go against his party; “Nature will resolve them.”

On a more serious note, Malema, despite a dismal performance by his party in several by-elections across parts of the country insisted that the EFF was growing. 

“The EFF is growing but the problem is those who control the narrative and owners of the mainstream media want to supress that growth,” he said.

He believes, despite polls suggesting otherwise, that the red berets will recover in the 2026 elections.

Malema, like many of his political counterparts accepts that coalitions are here to stay, with a firm belief that next year’s local government elections must see parties picking the best among their different mayoral candidates to serve.

This is a different take from the ANC’s position, which has argued that the responsibility to form government lies solely in the hands of the organisation which has received the most numbers.

“I think we must allow the parties to put forward mayoral candidates, and let's have a conversation about these people that they've presented to us, and let's choose the best amongst our parties, because the ANC with its majority will give you, Dada Morero [because] we've got more numbers and Morero gets outshined by that lady in Tshwane Who's got no credentials compared to that,” he said of the capital’s Dr Nasiphi Moya.

Morero, the current Joburg mayor has been highly criticised for failing to get a handle of South Africa’s economic hub.

The EFF leader complained of the ANC’s arrogance, blaming it on the former liberation party’s inability to accept that it’s an organisation losing power.

Oddly enough Malema levels similar claims against ActionSA’s Herman Mashaba when it comes to managing the coalition in Tshwane.

The ANC, EFF and ActionSA had been working together in both Joburg and Tshwane, with Mashaba’s party now having pulled out of the Joburg partnership. This is over brewing tensions in the capital around the city manager, the ANC wants Johann Mettler out but ActionSA has dug in its heels.

“The ANC compromises and says, okay, fine if we want to rescue the city, even if we are many, we'll take the deputy mayor. That's a huge compromise. The parties now come together and say, we don't want this city manager. You don't listen to them. Who are you to not to listen to them? You don't have numbers. Herman has got no numbers. And if he continues to do that, we may see that city being destabilised again,” warned Malema.

And while he doesn’t believe proposed talks that Helen Zille, DA federal council chair might become a mayoral candidate for the party in Johannesburg, something which many in the DA see as inevitable, Malema insisted that parties and voters should never allow Zille to become the city’s number 1 citizen.

 “The Helen Zille thing, it's a bluff. Even if they do it, they won't win. They cannot govern Johannesburg, we must refuse, with all the problems we have amongst ourselves, we must refuse, for DA to come and govern Johannesburg,” he said.

“We will get Johannesburg right. We need the ANC numbers to drop significantly, and our numbers and progressive forces numbers increase significantly, so that we deal with the ANC arrogance,” he added.

The EFF president believes it’s his party, which “raised ‘isidima’ of the opposition in parliament, arguing that the MKP, which is the official opposition had reduced the stature of those opposing the government of the day, which now includes the DA, as part of the government of national unity. 

Attempts to build a progressive caucus to effectively counter the GNU hit a snag when Shivambu left.

“I want to help you, and in return, you want to destroy me. What do you call that? You think I must continue helping you so that you can destroy me. I cannot do that,” said Malema.

Malema said Red berets had initially sought to help the MKP adapt to parliamentary work but have since pulled away, adding that despite this new posture, the EFF will still work with them on an issue-by-issue basis.