Press statement of Economic Freedom Fighters on the Outcome of the National Assembly on WHAT IS TO BE DONE, August 1 2013
In this important month in our country's history when, in exactly 9 days, we will mark the contribution of Women to the defeat of the legal and political apparatus of apartheid, we as Economic Freedom Fighters open our press conference in salute of these heroines of our struggle. We note that violence against women and the girl child, sexually, in the workplace and schools, as well as in the private spaces of the family, continue to haunt our democratic dispensation.
The struggle for the total emancipation of women is one of our key focuses as Economic Freedom Fighters, and in this month we vow to continue the struggle for the crushing of patriarchy and violence against women.
Economic Freedom Fighters held a successful and historic National Assembly on WHAT IS TO BE DONE last Friday and Saturday, on 26 and 27 July, 2013 in Soweto, Orlando West. This assembly was constituted by 1200 delegates from across our country that came from provincial and regional structures that have been established already and heeded to the clarion call made on the 11th of June, 2013.
These were fighters from Non-governmental organisations, youth, workers, traditional leaders, Activists, Movements, Non-Profit organisations, political parties, churches, Intellectuals, Academics, Students, Traditional Chiefs, Headmen and Kings, Independent Councillors, Internationalists, and many others who left in the majority as EFF card carrying members?
The assembly followed a successful national policy forum on the 20th July, 2013 in that it set the stage for the conversation about the different policy matters to anticipate the National Assembly. From the National Assembly the following are therefore the key outcomes of a robust and fruitful conversation on what is to be done:
a) Economic Freedom Fighters should be a radical, Left, anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist Movement with an internationalist outlook that should contest power in South Africa.
b) Power must mean participating in electoral platforms, including contesting the general elections in 2014. However, in the main, it must go beyond and include participation in the various festivals of the oppressed and poor; protests, pickets, strikes, demonstrations and ideological battles for a total take over in the realisation of economic freedom in our lifetime
c) The National Assembly further adopted a Founding Manifesto which sets out the key policy positions of Economic Freedom Fighters beginning with the seven cardinal pillars that have been already canvased with society and used to set a conversation on WHAT IS TO BE DONE, these are;
a. Expropriation of South Africa's land without compensation for equal redistribution.
b. Nationalisation of Mines, banks, and other strategic sectors of the economy, without compensation.
c. Building State and government capacity, which will lead to abolishment of Tenders
d. Free quality education, healthcare, houses, and sanitation.
e. Massive protected industrial development to create millions of sustainable jobs including Introduction of minimum wages in order to close the wage gap between the rich and the poor.
f. Massive development of the African economy and advocating for a move from reconciliation to justice in the entire continent.
g. Open, accountable, corrupt-free government and society without fear of victimisation by State police
d) The Assembly adopted a constitution which is inspired by the Communist Party of China's constitution with specific adaptations that ensure the formation a formidable people's vanguard in South Africa. In the main, the structure of the Economic Freedom Fighters shall be constitutive of;
a. National People's Assembly which is the highest decision making body and elects the Central Command Team (CCT).
b. Provincial Assembly which elects the Provincial Command Team (PCT).
c. A Regional Assembly which elects the Regional Command Team (RCT).
d. Branch General Assembly which elects the Branch Command Team (BCT).
e. Every member of the EFF shall belong to a branch, which is the basic unit of activity for members. A normal meeting of the branch shall be called a Branch Assembly which is to be open to all community members
e) In addition, the Central Command Team shall have the President, who is also the Commander in Chief of Economic Freedom Fighters, deputised of a General Secretary, 18 Commissars, chairpersons and secretaries of provinces
f) We have also resolved to form EFF Women's Command and EFF Youth Command who shall forward two members of their National Command Teams to the EFF Central Command Team
g) The National Assembly on WHAT IS TO BE DONE adopted a declaration which epitomises the key moments in the two day historic meeting that also voices itself on the fraternal struggles at home and abroad
h) Finally, the National Assembly adopted colours and logo of Economic Freedom Fighters which are now being reproduced and worn with pride
Independent Electoral Commission
On Monday the 29th of July, 2013 as mandated by the National Assembly the EFF has begun the process of registration with the Independent Electoral Commission. The EFF has kick-started the process to register as a political party and founded a bank account.
In addition our website will be up and running from Monday the 5th of August, 2013 with the necessary online membership registration system that will respond to the overwhelming need of membership that thousands of South Africans have been indicating daily. The EFF will remain, nonetheless, a movement of the people for the realisation of economic freedom in our lifetime.
New South African Universities
The announcement by the President of the Republic, together with Minister of Higher Education that the much anticipated and long overdue universities of Mpumalanga and Northern Cape will enrol a total of 290 students is absolutely ridiculous.
It is no secret that the worsening situation of unemployment is directly linked to the question of access to higher education which has been limited and denied to the black child for centuries. The building of more universities in South Africa, with a focus on mass education and training, including research is the only solution to such a problem. Funding for massive expansion of universities has thus been the central problem since democratisation, precisely because the government of the day refuses to depart from the failing neoliberal macroeconomic frameworks that keep the state as far as possible from the provision of services.
The transformation of South Africa's colonial and racist past intricately lays in the provision of mass education for the black population. Such will never be achieved if higher education remains a privilege of those who can afford. The target even to have only 20 000 enrolments in ten years with rising population levels shows no seriousness to transform this countries unjust past.
Only a radical macroeconomic framework based on nationalisation of commanding heights of the economy like mining can provide the necessary funding for the state to invest in massive education projects; which remains long overdue and necessary for a meaningful transformation to occur. The government of the day, like the colonialists conservatively sponsors black higher education, particularly demonstrated by the fact that it has similar enrolments as Fort Hare did more than half a century ago when it started as a full university in the late 1930.
Immediate Political Program
Economic Freedom Fighters will therefore be focused on building structures across the country in preparation for elections and a long-term plan of total takeover of power for the implementation of the Founding Manifesto which will result in the economic freedom in our lifetime. Members of the Central Command Team, together with Provincial and Regional Command Teams will be posted in different parts of the country to monitor the building of strong structures of EFF.
In the next week, the EFF will announce the Launching Rally of the people's movement for economic freedom in our lifetime.
Finally Economic Freedom Fighters will also mark the anniversary of the Marikana Massacre that saw the slaughter and brutal murder of 44 mineworkers by the ANC government. The struggle for economic freedom in our lifetime has become even more urgent as the government of the day is unwilling to change the neoliberal market fundamentalist economic practices that insist on a flexible labour law regime, regardless of the fact that it is responsible for the very maintenance of super exploitation of black workers.
The government of the day now resorts in massacring descending voices to defend the bankruptcy of its policies. As Economic Freedom Fighters we vow to pick up the spears of these fearless fighters and continue the struggle for total economic emancipation in our lifetime.
Statement issued by the Economic Freedom Fighters, August 1 2013
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