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WATCH: Why Malema is willing to work with Zuma, but not Gayton
The EFF leader has labelled the PA a drug organisation that is in politics for money.
EFF leader Julius Malema speaks to the community of Eldorado Park at Don Mateman Hall on Wednesday. Picture: EFF/X
Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema says he would rather work with former president Jacob Zuma and the uMkhonto weSizwe party than Patriotic Alliance (PA) leader Gayton McKenzie.
Malema addressed the Eldorado Park community on Wednesday, where he labelled the PA a “drug organisation” and said that McKenzie was in politics for money.
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Malema was responding to a community member who had asked about an old video clip of McKenzie saying he, Kenny Kunene and the EFF leader were not the right people to run the country.
McKenzie has since said that he was not ready then, but is ready now.
Malema said: “I don’t think he’s a politician; he doesn’t want to be one. He’s in it for the transactions. When they negotiate coalitions in municipalities, they say, ‘we should make R200 million this year.’ So, they’re all about making money and schemes − that’s their focus. They’re really not interested in politics,” Malema told the community gathered at Don Mateman Hall.
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“If you were to ask about the manifesto of the PA, except that we saw the president jumping in the stadium shouting ‘Abahambe’ − Where must they go? That is the manifesto, Abahambe. So, we cannot engage with people who are not politicians.”
Malema said the PA’s problem with “Nigerian drug lords” was not about crime, but that the drug lords were taking the party out of business.
“Here in Eldorado Park, you just go and elect a councillor of a drug organisation, of gangsters. The president of that organisation says in a debate yesterday ‘the business of drugs has been taken over by Nigerians’.
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“He wants us to take over the business of drugs? He doesn’t say ‘we must close down the drugs’. His problem with the Nigerians is that they can no longer sell drugs as leaders of the PA. They want Nigerians to go so that they can sell the drugs. That’s what he said. We are not fighting the drug lord, we are fighting the drugs, they must get out of South Africa. Once the drugs are out of South Africa, there won’t be a drug lord. The problem is crime, not who is committing it.’
An alliance between MK and EFF?
Malema, however, said he was willing to partner with the MK party, and would, in fact, meet with Zuma after the elections for the two parties to forge a way forward.
“We absolutely have no problem with Zuma doing what he’s doing, he’s got the political right to do that. We are not far apart from MK when it comes to policies, we speak land, empowerment of our people and restoration for the economy to the rightful hands of the owners,” said Malema.
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“Before Zuma went to launch the party on 16 December, I would have met him around the 10th and 12th of December, where we spoke about these matters and he explained to me what is his movement about. We agreed to meet after the elections and see how the two organisations can carry each other forward because the unity of purpose is very important.”
