The national elective conference of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) continues for a third day in Nasrec, south of Johannesburg, on Sunday.
On Saturday night, delegates elected new leadership with four new faces joining the EFF’s Central Command team.
Julius Malema remains President of the party and Floyd Shivambu his deputy.
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Earlier on Saturday, Malema said the party would engage in militant programmes to prevent government from incapacitating State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) and selling them to white monopoly capital.
He also lunged at President Cyril Ramaphosa, accusing him of being captured.
“What drives business men is profit nothing else the money into CR17 went in there and then it went into his trust campaigning money and then he says no they were paying me my money back, which money from which account? Where did you sent it to? Let those things that are sealed in courts come out and then you will see those people want their money and they are not playing so our President is captured. Yes our president is captured by white monopoly capital.”
Malema was also at pains to clarify the party’s vision of the socialist state it intends to establish should it win power.
“Socialism does not mean the state and government ownership it is not state where private non-exploitative property such as houses, cars and clothes will commonly shared. Socialism is about ending private ownership of the means of production; it’s about ending the private ownership of mines, farms and monopoly industries. Socialism does not do away with personal non-exploitative property, it does away with private property owned by individuals and used to make profit,” he told delegates at the National People’s Assembly while delivering his political report.
Land expropriation
Speaking on the EFF’s cardinal tenant the issue of Land Expropriation without Compensation, Malema warned that a gradual and right-wing approach to land reform must be resisted.
“The position basically is that the government will come contributing pieces of paper in areas where Black people are staying without relocating them to any other area. If you have doubts that the policy of distributing title deeds is part of the establishment policies, just look at the fact that Johan Rupert was personally distributing title deeds to informal settlement dwellers in Stellenbosch municipality and recently Investec was doing the same in Soshanguve and they are creating a false sense of ownership by distributing pieces of paper and not pieces of land which is our primary target.”
Malema says the country is suffering from economic crisis with the banks and big business behaving as a law onto themselves. He singled out the Reserve Bank as having to be transformed and stripped of its private shareholders.
Malema also welcomed eNCA’s withdrawal from the conference, saying it is no longer welcome at any EFF events or media briefings.
The 24-hour broadcaster withdrew its coverage from the conference in solidarity with media houses the party barred from covering the EFF’s second National People’s Assembly.
eNCA Editor Jeremy Maggs has described the EFF’s decision as an attack on media freedom, saying it must be condemned in the strongest possible terms.
However, in a statement the EFF has rejected this explanation – saying the organisation pulled out because Malema exposed eNCA owner Johan Rupert while talking about the “fake distribution of title deeds” by the business tycoon.
A number of international guests, including EFF -aligned parties from the continent as well as Cuba, Venezuala, Liberia and China, attended the party’s second elective congress.
AMCU’s President Joseph Mathunjwa, Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs Football clubs owners, Irvin Khoza and Kaizer Motaung respectively and directors from MTN and Vodacom were also there on Saturday.
The newly elected EFF Top 6: CIC @Julius_S_Malema, DP @FloydShivambu, NC @veronica_mente, SG @DlaminiMarshall, DSG Poppy Moilola and TG @OmphileMaotwe #EFFNPA2019 pic.twitter.com/QzTPVz45eQ
— Economic Freedom Fighters (@EFFSouthAfrica) December 14, 2019
Newly elected EFF Officials.
President and CIC: Julius Sello Malema
Deputy President- Commissar Floyd Shivambu
National Chairperson – Commissar Veronica Mente
SG- Commissar Marshall Dlamini
DSG – Commissar Poppy Mailola
TG- Commissar Omphile Maotwe#EFFNPA2019
— Economic Freedom Fighters (@EFFSouthAfrica) December 14, 2019
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