SA media out of touch with reality, Malema asserts
An analyst says Malema is trying to shift his ideological stance towards a more socialist movement to try and capture trade unionists' support.
Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema speaks at a press conference, 16 May 2019, in Braamfontein. Picture: Michel Bega
The commander-in-chief of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), Julius Malema, was in fine form yesterday when he gave a post-election press briefing at the party’s headquarters in Braamfontein, Johannesburg.
Malema said the EFF’s immediate task in parliament would be the completion of the work that could not be done by the fifth democratic parliament, including the amendment of Section 25 of the Constitution to allow for expropriation of land without compensation, and the amendment of the SA Reserve Bank Act to discontinue private shareholders in the bank.
He said if it went according to the capitalist and establishment media’s wishes, Cyril Ramaphosa would have achieved an 80% ANC victory.
“What the 2019 election results revealed was that mainstream media in South Africa is not in touch with reality and what is happening on the ground.
“In reality, the ANC support reduced in all provinces under Ramaphosa’s leadership,” said Malema.
He said the entire capitalist establishment – including international media – had tried to impose Ramaphosa on the people of South Africa but a significant number refused to be puppets.
“The reality is that despite being presented as the best of the best, Ramaphosa performed worse than Jacob Zuma, meaning that to ordinary people, Ramaphosa is no better than Zuma,” said Malema.
Political analyst Daniel Silke said Malema was trying to shift his ideological stance towards a more socialist movement to try and recapture a socialist orientation.
“I think Malema feels that the ANC has moved away from socialist ideologies, therefore he maybe sees a gap in the market with the hope of capturing support from trade unionists,” said Silke.
He said it would be interesting to see if the EFF was capable of fine-tuning its policies.
“Let’s see if he can translate his policies into a more classical policy framework,” he said.
Malema said while the EFF welcomed the election results, they believed that the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) should develop adequate internal capacity to prevent voters from casting their ballots more than once.
“The IEC should build capacity to tally the number of voters on a constant basis,” he said.
“The manner in which the IEC’s system of voter verification and consolidation of votes is structured can be abused,” he said.
– gcinan@citizen.co.za
For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.
