South Africa: Malema says ‘people of Joburg will reject Helen Zille’
EFF leader Julius Malema has told EFF supporters gathered in Joburg that the red berets will not rush to unveil their mayoral candidates without having provided a comprehensive local government elections manifesto. Malema accused the DA and ActionSA of diverting focus from substantive policies to create a “personality contest” around their respective mayoral candidates.
The remarks were directed at DA federal leader and City of Joburg mayoral candidate Helen Zille, with Malema accusing her of announcing her candidacy prematurely without outlining a clear plan for the people of Johannesburg.
“Helen Zille organised a manifesto launch here in Johannesburg in a hall. She will never come to an open field like this, here in Johannesburg, because the people of Johannesburg have already rejected her. That is why she went into a smaller hall. What kind of political culture is that, where people say this is your mayor before they speak about what they are going to do for you?” Malema asked.
Malema was addressing a gathering of the party’s Mass Voter Registration Campaign outside the party’s headquarters at Gandhi Square in Johannesburg’s city centre on Saturday. He said the EFF, unlike the DA and other political parties, will not succumb to pressure to hasten the announcement of its council and mayoral candidates.
“You must launch a manifesto first, and say the best person who can implement this manifesto is this one. You do not start with personalities. We are not in beauty contests here. We are about what you are going to do for the people before you tell us who is beautiful, who is not…They want us to do the same. We will not do the same,” he adde
In his address, Malema further indicated that the party is currently finalising its manifesto, which will outline the EFF’s deliverables for local government elections. Malema added that councillors must go through the manifesto first before declaring their candidacy.
“The manifesto comes first, then we will deal with the issues of the mayors and councillors, so that when you say you are available to be a councillor, you must know what is expected of you, as you would have read the manifesto”, he added.
Malema also took aim at ActionSA’s recently announced mayoral candidate for Ekurhuleni, Xolani Khumalo, accusing him of endorsing vigilantism in his proposed strategies against the rampant drug and crime issues plaguing the city.
Responding to the claims made by Malema, ActionSA spokesperson Matthew George stated: “We do not have time to entertain the panicked ramblings of Julius Malema, who is clearly rattled by the reality that ActionSA is leading in Ekurhuleni and there is nothing they can do about it.”
George added that Khumalo has proven himself to be a hardworking councilor in Ekurhuleni through his crime-fighting initiatives.
Earlier this month, during her campaign trail in Soweto and other parts of the city, Zille unveiled five pledges to the residents of Joburg. These included a crackdown on water challenges, fixing and repairing roads, potholes, and streetlights, and a promise of 200,000 new jobs for the residents of the city.
Attempts to get a comment from DA’s election campaign spokesperson, Kyle Jacobs, were unsuccessful at the time of publication.