The EFF statement on the allegations of labour law violations against EFF employees

13 April 2015

The Economic Freedom Fighters rejects the malicious allegations by made in City Press that EFF disregards labour laws and progressive labour practices as a smear campaign aimed at discrediting the movement. The EFF remains the only party with the best working class interests and will never turn its back on progressive labour practices and laws. This is demonstrated by the fact that none of all EFF employees earns less than R4,500 per month, which is the minimum wage the EFF advocates for in its manifesto (see City Press report).

The allegation that the EFF does not pay UIF is simply false. The EFF is a legally registered political party and thus pays Unemployment Insurance Fund in terms of each employees it enters into a contract with. The EFF only directly employs staff members in its head offices in Johannesburg, Legislatures and in parliament. The rest of fighters who work in constituency offices are volunteers who are remunerated in accordance with parliamentary constituency allowance allocations.

The fighters who have approached the CCMA know that the emphasis has always been to approach constituency work on voluntary terms and not as employment. This is why in the policy of the EFF constituency offices are run by activists of the EFF who understand the political importance of these offices to both the life of the organisation and its impact on the lives of the communities.

The EFF has 54 constituency offices all of which are situated in the 54 regions of South Africa. These offices are run by an administrator and two field workers. These political positions, with administrator specifically given to elected secretaries of the EFF in the regions and in instances where the region has not gone to a conference, then the interim coordinator of the Regional Command Team. This is to ensure that secretaries are permanently in the offices as political deployment of the RCT.

This means if a person is not elected into office as a regional secretary of the EFF, they cannot become an administrator in the constituency office. This is similar to the political positions of the EFF in legislatures, in that when one ceases to be a member of the EFF, they can no longer be an MPL remunerated in the name of the EFF.

The EFF is aware that these allegations made by the group that approached the CCMA did so as part of the Save the Soul of the EFF campaign that was initiated by the disgruntled Group of Four, now expelled or suspended. Majority of these fighters lost out in runner up regional and provincial assemblies of the EFF to be elected into office. They always understood that these were positions linked to political office to which one must be democratically elected in order to occupy them.

The EFF constituency offices also have a much large number of activists who volunteer for the work of servicing branches each day without remuneration. Many RCT and BCT members are unemployed, but they take to the ground each day building the EFF without any expectation of remuneration. As revolutionaries we appreciate this work in this way and seek to inculcate it in all members.

The allegations are a further attempt to divert the EFF's attention on the growing groundwork it has undertaken to advance the economic emancipation struggle. The EFF is hard at work and will never be deterred from the land occupation struggles, anti-corruption work, statue campaigns and the preparations for the rallies in KwaZulu Natal and Eastern Cape on April 27 and May the 1st respectively.

Statement issued by the Economic Freedom Fighters, April 13 2015