Julius Malema during a roundtable discussion with journalists on Thursday | Image: Twitter
The EFF says the government and the ANC have used the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown period “as a period for massive looting of state resources”.
The party added that there has not yet been a “believable effort to recover the millions of rands lost due to Covid-19 response efforts”.
The party was responding to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement that South Africa would move to Alert Level 1 of the lockdown at midnight on Sunday.
The EFF said it noted Ramaphosa’s announcement and that it would closely monitor the government’s programmes and responses “because almost everything they have said about Covid-19 does not seem to be a reflection of reality”.
“Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the South African government’s response has been less than satisfactory, defined by non-disclosure of important data indicators, such as the demographic profiles of those [who became] infected and/or died from Covid-19,” EFF spokesperson Vuyani Pambo said.
Immoral looting
He said the most “vivid illustration” about the Ramaphosa government since the lockdown was that it “serves the interests of the white capitalist establishment”.
“Instead of localisation of the key product and equipment needed to fight Covid-19, Ramaphosa’s administration chose to prioritise tenderpreneurs who immorally looted state resources for personal benefit.
“The South African government’s economic response package, inclusive of the imaginary R500 billion, empty promises of a grant for unemployed people, and mishandling of the Unemployment Insurance Fund, is a vivid illustration that this government does not care about black people. With so much corruption underpinning this effort, it is now evident that the biggest beneficiaries of the whole effort are white people and companies.”
The EFF said it would “continue to prioritise the lives of the people because this administration has demonstrated that they only care about white capitalist interests”.
For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.