THE CENTRE IS NOT HOLDING EFF PRESS STATEMENT, 18 OCTOBER, 2017

Introduction

Fellow South Africans we want to open this press briefing by expressing our solidarity and sincere condolences to the people of Somalia who are facing the effects of a devastating terrorist attack. Over 300 people have died in the city of Mogadishu, and hundreds more injured or missing. We condemn terrorism as a unethical and reactionary tool used by cowards because it is essentially a war against innocent and unarmed people. 

We reiterate our call for the continent to unite in combating terrorism. Furthermore, we call on the peoples of the continent, including all capable South Africans to send all forms of aid to Somalia to help them in this difficult time.

We have convened this press briefing to reflect on the state of affairs in our own country and the reality that the centre is no longer holding, and things are falling apart. Each adult South African from all walks of life has to fast disabuse themselves from the illusion that those at the helm of government rule in collective interests of our country. The truth is we are now on our own.

Capture of Treasury and Kleptocracy 

No where is this more expressed than in the unrelating pursuit by the Zuma-Gupta regime to capture Treasury. The National Treasury has used Section 16 of the PFMA to withdraw R5.2 billion from the National Revenue Fund to bail out SAA, and such has resulted in stability. Section 16 of PFMA permits National Treasury to use money without the necessary Parliamentary process only when there is an emergency, but Malusi Gigaba led Treasury continues to use emergency fund to bail out SAA whose problems are self-created and open for everyone to see far in advance. 

The capture of National Treasury also includes attempts to redirect government workers’ pensions under the management of the PIC into bailing out failing State Owned Companies. Workers' Unions in the public sector should demand fair representation in the governance of the PIC so that they can closely monitor what their pensions are used for and where they are invested. 

Gigaba is personally responsible for the collapse of sate owned entities. He is the architect of state capture and therefore cannot be trusted with public funds. When he gives guarantees that PIC is safe, it is like asking us to trust a rat when it says “your cheese is safe with me”. Gigaba has already demonstrated this by extending the term of Dudu Myeni as board chairperson of SAA despite her demonstrated incompetence. 

We can also confirm that Gigaba is indeed running a parallel administration within treasury in order to bypass the tougher demands of the process and strict adherence to Public Finance Managment Act that senior treasury staff always demands on state projects. In essence, our national treasury is a crisis-ridden department forced into the direction of accepting corrupt driven projects like nuclear procurement. 

This is why the EFF welcomes all efforts by different Parliamentary Committees to investigate allegations and instances of State capture by the Gupta criminal syndicate. The Portfolio Committee on Public Enterprises has started with the ESKOM inquiry, which will extend to the other State Owned Companies and the Portfolio Committee on Mineral Resources have called Mosebenzi Zwane to answer on his relationship with the Gupta criminal syndicate.

The EFF will robustly engage in this process to reveal the reality that the ANC outsourced executive powers in majority SOEs to a family. The process to take South Africa from the hands of few corrupt individuals should intensify.

The EFF is the first political party in parliament to raise concerns around the role of all audit firms in financial crimes, particularly illicit financial flows, base erosion, transfer pricing and tax avoidance. The criminal collaboration of KPMG comes as no surprise because on many occasions, we made an argument and presentation in parliament that audit firms help huge corporations with transfer pricing and tax avoidance.

The EFF is in the process of developing an anti-tax avoidance legislation which will criminalise the corporations and audit firms that involve themselves in these immoral activity of depriving South Africans their rightful benefit from the wealth generated in the country. 

The EFF Founding Manifesto proclaims building state capacity as one of the founding cardinal pillars. The usage of consultants such as McKinsey, EOH, Trillian and many others is only aimed at syphoning off funds for private benefit. Consultants are a conduit for corrupt activities in the State and should be replaced with a capable State which will plan, implement and monitor all its programmes and activities. 

Zuma Charges and Review Application

We welcome the outcomes of the Supreme Court of Appeal against criminal suspect Jacob Zuma and the National Prosecuting Authority. What the judgment means is that Zuma is a criminal suspect and the NPA must immediately charge him so that he faces all the 786 charges. As a criminal suspect, Zuma must resign from office. This resignation is even more important now than ever before because the country cannot be led by both a constitutional delinquent and a criminal suspect.

Furthermore, the EFF will be opposing Jacob Zuma’s application to review Thuli Madonsela’s remedial action that Zuma must appoint a judge recommended by the Chief Justice to chair the Commission of Inquiry into Gupta State Capture. The case will be argued over 3 days before a Full Bench of 3 judges led by the Judge President of Gauteng. We call on South Africans to reject Zuma’s delay tactics which are similar to his conduct in respect of the Nkandla and Spy Tapes scandals. For this reason, the EFF will argue that Zuma must pay the legal costs from his own pocket and not from taxpayers’ money.

SABC Board

We are proud of the stability that had initially been restored by the SABC interim board whose tenure ended almost three weeks ago. Zuma’s appoint of the new board under the chairpersonship of Bongumusa Makhathini and Deputy Chairpersonship of Febe Potgieter-Gqubule is a direct reversal of the stability built by the interim board in the SABC. These two individuals are Jacob and Nkosazana Zuma’s stooges who will continue the SABC capture, confirming that Zuma and stability are not of the same WhatsApp group. 

It is not a coincident that newly appointed chair of the SABC boards is the sitting chairperson of the Bongingema Zuma Foundation and that Nkosazana Zuma’s former chief of staff in the AU is his deputy chairperson of the SABC board. Under these conditions, we must not be shocked if characters like Hlaudi Motsoeneng are brought back into SABC. 

Nevertheless, we have confidence in the majority of the board members to ensure that they fight these two stooges of Jacob and Nkosazana Zuma from collapsing the public broadcaster. The two stooges must be closely monitored as they plan to use the SABC platform to advance the Zuma family interests towards the ANC elective conference in December. 

Cabinet Reshuffle 

We reject the reshuffle of the national executive because it does not include the criminal suspect, Jacob Zuma. We also welcome Blade Nzimande’s removal as Higher Education minister. Now he will have all the necessary time to go to the ground and campaign for the removal of the Zuma family in the ANC December conference. 

There was big expectation on his appointment as a communist into the cabinet, but like all communist appointments, Nzimande was consistent with incompetence and compliance with bourgeois agendas. The cabinet reshuffle is a clear consolidation of the state of capture for the nuclear procurement deal. It is also used to settle political scores and consolidate factional power for the ANC December conference which will be the ultimate demise of the ANC as a whole. 

Maritzburg College and Freedom of Expression 

We want to condemn the manner in which the Department of Basic Education in KZN is dealing with the matter of the Maritzburg College and its violation of the rights of black students who openly support the EFF. The approach of the Department was to order the school to suspend its disciplinary processes against the students whilst it investigates racism. 

The reality is that Maritzburg College management violated the constitutional rights of black students. Therefore it should have been unequivocally instructed to drop those irrational, illegal and reactionary charges and apologise to the two black students for violating their constitutional right to freedom of expression. The department has therefore allowed a situation where white supremacists are not punished and thus violate the dignity of the black child without recourse.  

The department has not explained what racism they are investigating, the terms of reference and when is it expected to conclude. This all seems like a PR exercise to help the school avoid accountability for its unconstitutional actions. We want to warn Maritzburg College management and all other white dominated schools that you are now under EFF scrutiny and we will be coming for you on each violation of the rights of black people. 

The EFF is in full support of the parents of the two students charged, we provided legal assistance which will continue to be available as and when the need arises. 

Revolutionary Discipline and Conscience 

The Central Command Team of the EFF has made reflections on the revolutionary discipline, in particular of its public representatives. We want to reiterate that outcomes of our National Disciplinary Committee to expel councillors who defy organisational mandate in councils is consistent with the practice of voting with the conscience. This is because, by definition, conscience means an ethical or moral code that each of us lives with. 

Therefore, none of the instructions or mandates of the EFF has ever been outside the moral or ethical demands placed by the South African constitution or our revolution. EFF has never, and will never instruct public representatives to do illegal or anti-revolutionary things.

The CCT of the EFF has picked up effort by white capital that is fishing for capture in the EFF leadership. White Monopoly Capital realises that political change is inevitable. They can see that their investment in ANC is no longer holding, and this animal threatens to destroy not only itself but also the economy which is white dominated.

We have detected this tendency, which is in its infant stages, from our founding moment, we did expect it and now want to vow to all fighters and the public that we shall never negotiate or compromise our generational mission. We shall never allow this movement to be given on a silver-platter to white monopoly capital. 

Year of the Branch

All fighters must work relentlessly to ground the organisation in the communities across urban and rural South Africa. Our only solution to the capture of white capital is a grass root based, bottom-up organisation of the people. The Year of the Branch, therefore, means by 31 December 2017, there must be no ward without an EFF branch in good standing. We have noted the progress made to build genuine organisational presence thus far but call on all efforts, in these last four months of the year, to be dedicated into consolidating the year of the branch.

We are happy of the organisational report on the progress made in the provinces of KZN and Eastern Cape. Before the end of the year, we are confident that majority, if not all regions would have held their elective Regional People’s Assemblies which will also lead to the elective Provincial People’s Assemblies. 

There is, however, a lot of degeneration in Mpumalanga Province due to lack of leadership. As a result, the EFF officials summoned the Mpumalanga EFF leadership to explain itself. In addition, we shall be closely monitoring their developments and if there are no improvements, necessary interventions will be made. 

There are public representatives who have not added any value in the efforts to ground the organisation in ward-based structures. They have never delivered on assignments given to them due to laziness. We have identified two of these members within our caucus in Parliament and we shall be asking them to resign as MPs because they are not adding any value to build the EFF that they represent in parliament; unless they present a cogent case as to why this must not be so. 

All other public representatives are duly monitored in that they ought to contribute to building the organisation and effectively representing the people in councils, legislatures and parliament. 

We are happy with the progress made by the EFF Student Command in SRC elections across the country. The youth is sending a clear message to the old people that they are not part of the past; they belong to the future. EFF Student Command must continue to exert its presence in all university and TVET campuses; no campus must lack a branch of the EFF SC. 

Conclusion

Fellow South Africans, the centre is not holding. This government has lost control even of streets that are being run by criminals and gangs. Its failure to resolve the economic problems of poverty and unemployment has been worsened by its own failure to uphold the rule of law. We have become a laughing stock to criminals who watch the Minister of Police make wrongful arrests, whilst failing to arrest fellow cabinet and parliament members who openly break the law. Policing has become an empty Social Media spectacle as this government does not enjoy legitimacy due to its own lawlessness. 

Our message is clear that the solution lies in a complete removal of the ANC from power. If we do not, we will all perish. On the 2 of November, we shall be demonstrating against the apartheid state of Israel at its Pretoria Embassy. We will do this in solidarity with the people of Palestine and their demand for Israel to end its occupation of Palestinian land in West Bank and Gaza. 

Statement issued by the Economic Freedom Fighters, 18 October 2017