NEWS & ANALYSIS

Malema: Trollip’s days are numbered

'I don't hate white people, I just love black people. I’m already in a relationship with black people,', says EFF leader

Malema: Trollip’s days are numbered

29 March 2018

Nelson Mandela Bay Mayor Athol Trollip might survive the vote of no confidence in him on Thursday, but his days are numbered and he will not see the end of his political term in office, Economic Freedom Fighters commander-in-chief Julius Malema told a packed Nangoza Jebe Hall in New Brighton on Wednesday evening.

Malema said there were people who were upset with the EFF leadership for deciding to vote against the DA in the Metro.

"You must ask yourself why you voted for the EFF," he said.

Malema said there were several issues in the EFF manifesto, including minimum wage, land expropriation without compensation, increasing social grants and banning labour brokers.

"All of these manifestos of the EFF, there is nowhere where we said we would vote for the ANC. There is nowhere where we said, vote for us and we will vote for the DA. We never said that. None of you voted for us in order for us to vote for the DA. None of you voted for us in order for us to vote for the ANC.

"So, while we do the tactic of moving tables and playing [musical] chairs in order to deliver these things we promised you, why are you becoming angry and irritated?" he said.

Trollip's days are numbered

Malema said Trollip could continue leading and that he did not care, but he added that Trollip would do so without the mandate or support of the EFF.

"If he wins, there is no problem. There will not be a war. It is democracy in action."

Malema said they would accept the outcome of the vote of no confidence, but said EFF supporters should not have nightmares about the alliance between the DA and the Patriotic Alliance.

"As long as we have pronounced that Trollip is going, he will go. There may be a marriage of convenience tomorrow with gangsters and all that, but Trollip will not finish his term as mayor of Nelson Mandela [Bay]"

"Once the EFF have pronounced on you, we don't stop. Tomorrow we will attempt to remove Trollip. If we fail tomorrow, we will come back again and, if we fail, we will come back again until we collapse him and teach him a lesson. We are going for him. We have taken a decision and there is no retreat.

"How many motions did [former president Jacob] Zuma defeat? Where is Zuma today? Who is Trollip who survives on some 50/50 arrangement? Zuma had 60% plus, but when the EFF said come here, motion of no confidence, he left running," he said.

"Trollip, tomorrow, the day after, it doesn't matter. We have declared that you are going and it will not change."

"He must pass budget, he doesn't have our vote. Whatever he wants to do with the municipality, we are not with him. He is alone until they come before us and tell us how we are getting our land," he said.

'I don't hate whites'

"I don't hate white people, I just love black people. I’m already in a relationship with black people," he said.

"We will fight white dominance, white supremacy, whiteness, wherever it raises its ugly head," he said.

Malema said the party could stand up to whites because they had not taken any money from white people. "They said we took the money of the farm owners to finance the EFF. Let me tell you, a new policy has been passed by Parliament where political parties must disclose their funders. The EFF will do the same thing. We have nothing to hide. We never took the money of a white man.

"We never took the money of a white man and that's why we are the only party that stands up to the white man. No one in South Africa can do that except the EFF. All of them have taken the money of white people, and all of them are scared to change the property relations in South Africa because they are compromised by their business interests and their relationship with white monopoly capital. We are the only ones," he said.

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