Stop grandstanding, Malema tells Mashaba

5 September 2016

Johannesburg - Johannesburg Mayor Herman Mashaba must stop grandstanding and get on with his job, EFF leader Julius Malema said on Monday.

"If you go around pronouncing things like you have got power you are going to embarrass yourself," he told reporters.

He advised Mashaba to stop doing so many interviews and get on with his job.

Malema praised Tshwane Mayor Solly Msimanga.

"That young man in Tshwane, he is just doing his work. He doesn't attempt to become an instant celebrity, but we are monitoring him. We are monitoring everyone because we are the opposition."

He said the EFF had no relationship with the DA and was not in a coalition with the DA.

On August 17, following the local government elections, Malema announced that the EFF would not enter into coalitions with the DA or ANC in hung municipalities. It would instead vote with the DA in Tshwane, Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Nelson Mandela Bay; with the IFP in hung KwaZulu-Natal municipalities; and the Forum 4 Service Delivery in Rustenburg.

"You have to behave proper otherwise you will be in trouble," Malema warned Mashaba.

The EFF criticized Mashaba's plans to split waste removal company Pikitup into separate entities and hand them to small businesses.

Malema said his public criticism of Mashaba was proof there was no coalition with the DA.

"If there was a coalition, when Mashaba misbehaves, that would have been subject to underground type of political management and get resolved there.

"We just voted for them to deal with an immediate threat, which was the ANC, and it ended there."

This article first appeared on News24, see here.