ECONOMIC FREEDOM FIGHTERS MEDIA STATEMENT
Thursday, August 23, 2018
Over the past three months the EFF has been hard at work to consolidate its organisational capabilities and ready itself for watershed elections in 2019. We take this opportunity to upraise the country on these developments, as well as provide critique, direction and hope on a variety of challenges facing the country.
NATIONALISATION OF THE RESERVE BANK AND OTHER EFF BILLS
We have submitted a private members amendment bill on the 16th of August 2018 which intends to realise the objectives of our founding manifesto and the reason we formed the EFF. In accordance with our cardinal pillars, the EFF promised that it would pursue the nationalisation of Banks. The first step towards this is the South African Reserve Bank Amendment Bill which proposes to remove private ownership of the bank in favour of the state as the sole owner.
The SARB is responsible for licensing and monitoring of banks into existence and has since 1994 dismally failed to facilitate and permit financial inclusion and diversification in South Africa. The 6 largest banks are responsible for more than 90% of banking services and are all owned and controlled by the white minorities, who often apply racist selections criteria on who gains access to proper banking services, including mortgage.
The EFF is unapologetic that the Nationalisation of the SARB should necessarily inspire a banking ownership and control reality that is reflective of South Africa’s demographics. Furthermore, a nationalised SARB will permit for and encourage the existence of State Owned Banks and other financial institutions in order to save billions of Rands expended by the State on banking services.
Central Banks all over the world are not owned by private shareholders and ours should also not be privately owned, by predominantly white individuals who exclude black and particularly African people from mainstream economic participation.
In Addition, the Banks Amendment Bill introduced by the Deputy President is before the Standing Committee on Finance for deliberation in Parliament upcoming term.
This bill seeks to amend the Banks Act so as to permit the State to own commercial Banks since the current Act forbids the State from owning Banks.
The EFF has further submitted notices of intention to introduce the National Health Amendment Bill and Government Workers Insourcing Bill by Commissars Dr Suzan Thembekwayo and Deputy Secretary General Hlengiwe Mkhaliphi respectively. Both notices have since been gazetted on the 25th of May 2018 (Gazette No: 41657) for public comments for a period of 30 days.
The Insourcing Bill consultation form is in the process of being finalised and a notice to introduce the bill will be announced. Writing progressive policies into coherent legislation illustrates the EFF’s readiness to govern, hence our commitment that we will be Government from 2019 onwards.
LAND EXPROPRIATION
The EFF seeks to put all South Africa’s land under state custodianship, not some of the land. Under the EFF solution, many of the pieces of land that will be expropriated first are the ones that are not in use. However, in a long run, the state reserves the right to expropriate land when the purpose it is used for has either changed or it is illegal.
So, all white people who will be losing farms, it will be first the farms that they in the moment do not use or where there is actually no production taking place. Then we will come for farms where there is actual production or business taking place for the purposes of black inclusion.
In distributing those farms, there will be absolute prioritisation of black people who are the natives of this land. The mechanisms for this lie in the legislation which must be developed to speak to the detail of distribution of expropriated land. However, the first step must be an amendment of the constitution, not expropriation.
If you expropriate before you amend the constitution, you risk a court battle with all those who own properties you seek to expropriate. Thus, the ANC plan to expropriate 150 farms before a constitutional amendment is a populist move seeking to take credit in the eyes of public opinion. Worse, it must be condemned as a flagrant disregard of public resources because it will see tax-payers money wasted in court battles. We are warning you, do not play public opinion games with the land question. It is an emotive issue in which people’s dignity is at stake, our people’s hopes cannot be subjected to a contest on public opinion.
Furthermore, we want to send a strong message to the USA authorities, just like we did to the Australian authorities, stay out of South Africa’s domestic affairs. South Africa is a post-colonial country ceased with deep racial inequalities that were long designed by apartheid and colonisation. Our land expropriation program seeks to realise the ideal of equality and human dignity. Through land expropriation we are forcing white people to share the land which was gained through a crime against the humanity of black and African people.
Be that as it may, we must put it on record, unequivocally, that Donald - the pathological liar - Trump, we are not scared of you and your USA or Western imperialist forces. We are not the generation that is going to kneel at the statue of Western imperialism and accept to live in the indignity of black landlessness.
ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENTS
The Central Command Team met over the past weekend in its normal quarterly meeting, and this was following a national elections workshop by all EFF structures. In this CCT we consolidated our Elections Manual which details our path to 2019 victory, as well as new Elections Deployments. National Deployments are as follows;
Gauteng:
Convener: CIC Julius Malema
Commissars
1. Nathasha Ntlangwibi
2. Tebogo Mokwele
3. Tseko Mafanya
4. Thembi Msane
5. Mgcini Tshwaku
6. Mbuyiseni Ndlozi
Limpopo:
Convener: CIC Julius Malema
Commissars
1. Fana Mokoena
2. Sam Matiase
3. Ntokozo Hlonyane
4. Delisile Ngwenya
5. Roger Xalisa
North West
Convener: CIC Julius Malema
1. Nontando Nolutshungu
2. Lawrance Matsetela
3. Nazier Paulsen
4. Dr. Suzan Thembekwayo
Mpumalanga
Convenor: DP Floyd Shivambu
1. Veronica Mente
2. Thembinkosi Rawula
3. Reneilwe Mashabela
Eastern Cape
Convenor: National Chair
Commissars:
1. DSG Hlengiwe Mkhaliphi
2. Primrose Sonti
3. Nkakgisang Koni
Free State
Convenor: TG LeighAnn Mathys
Commissars
1. Sherly Mokgotho
2. Yunis Vawda
3. Mmabatho Mokause
Northern Cape
Convenor: DSG Hlengiwe Mkhaliphi
Commissars
1. Pebane Moteka
2. Collin Mkhonza
3. Tshilivhali Mulaudzi
KwaZulu Natal
Convenor: Marhsall Dlamini
1. Commissar Portia Malefane
2. Commissar Mathapelo Siwisa
Western Cape
Convenor: SG Godrich Gardee
Commissars
1. Lerato Duba
2. Ciliesta Motsepe
The following will be the schedule of the elective Provincial Peoples’ Assemblies:
Gauteng: 31 August to 02 September, 2018
North West: 31 August to 02 September 2018
Mpumalanga: 31 August to 02 September, 2018
Limpopo: 7 - 9 September, 2018
Northern Cape: 07 - 08 September, 2018
Free State: 8 - 9 September, 2018
Eastern Cape: 29 - 30 September, 2018
Western Cape: 21 - 23 September, 2018
KwaZulu Natal: 05 - 07 October, 2018
The PPAs are going to be ran by national deployees, from arrangements of venues, accreditation and elections. We shall verify each delegate from each branch before conference and make sure that the names correlate with what the outcomes of national audit reports. There are no disputes, whatsoever, that will be entertained at the PPAs; only a nationally approved delegates list shall apply.
We call on all fighters to exercise the same amount of discipline displayed in all our Regional People’s Assemblies. We must all isolate disruptors and violent elements who seek to disables the EFF. There must be free and open contestation of ideas, and positions. However, at all times, this must be done in accordance with the EFF constitution and guidelines.
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
We have uncovered a lot of corruption by senior executives in the department of Justice and Correctional Services involving mainly Chief Director Supply Chain Mr. Singh and Chief Financial Officer, Ms. Rossouw. We have written a letter to the Minister regarding the details of their corruption and lodged a complaint with the Public Protector. We hope they will act with speed, without fear or favour.
Singh is alleged to have placed undue influence on the awarding of R10 million tender to a Durban based company, Style Craft supplying office furniture to Polokwane High Court. Singh actively aligned tender brief specifications in favour of this company so it gains undue advantage over others. This is a finding by the departments own forensic investigation, a report which the EFF has seen.
Ms. Rossouw presided over a tender process for securing mobile courts for 7 regional offices which the Service Level Agreement specified at the cost of R9 272 875. We noted that spent on the current needs expenditure is R9 544 849, an overspent of R271 875. These differenced were pointed out even before the tender was awarded, yet they continued to give it to them. The Department of Justice and Correctional Services was aware of these irregularities and still did not take any action on Rossouw, or Singh.
TSHWANE METRO
Our caucus in the City of Tshwane has written to us about its intentions to put a motion of no confidence in the Mayor of the capital city, Solly Msimanga. This is based on the fact that they see him as a non-consultative leader who has prioritised white people amidst great service delivery problems in poor black communities.
The EFF caucus has also expressed great concern over Msimanga’s move to suspend the City Manager. This is over an alleged tender irregularity which he as a mayor, alongside the City Manager, stood in a press conference to assure that public that there were no irregularities. Even on this matter, Msimanga has not brought the EFF into confidence. In essence he is behaving like a person who won elections and has a majority in council, when he actually does not.
Our caucus has indicated that the City Manager is being punished because he is suspected to be the one that exposed the fact that Msimanga hired Marietha Aucamp who did not possess required qualifications for the job. The white dominated DA caucus is blood thirsty and wants to see the City Manager punished for exposing their fellow white fake. This is because Marrietha Aucamp is a blue-eyed child of the Tshwane DA who is supposed to be untouchable. We hate corruption, but we shall never be blinded by white supremacy and racism. Claims of corruption on black are always an easy response and retaliation by an exposed white supremacist because society is always ready to find blacks guilty of corruption in courts of public opinion.
If the City Manager is corrupt, there must be due process and such a process must equally hold Msimanga accountable as corruption could never happen at this level without his complicity.
STATE CAPTURE COMMISSION OF ENQUIRY
Despite the problem and presence of the disreputable Terence Nombembe, we welcome the start of the Commission of Enquiry into State Capture. We have hope as the broader collective of the commission contains many men and women of integrity. We also hope that the commission will stop at nothing to expose the extent of rot, interrogating anyone without fear or favour.
We call on all companies, government departments and entities to fully cooperate with the commission and provide all the necessary information to get to the bottom of the corruption networks of the Zuma and Gupta family.
We shall also do everything in our power to assist the commission with the information and evidence in our possession. We shall constantly provide pointers and guidance where necessary to ensure that the truth comes out in full.
AMNESTY ON FEES MUST FALL ACTIVISTS
We reiterate our call for the state to apply general amnesty on all fees must fall activists. These students must not be sent to prison for engaging in protest action which we all as a country came to acknowledge as legitimate. These students engaged in a struggle, asking for education. There is no worse evil we as a country can express than send them into prison cells where we all know they will come back as criminals. Fees Must Fall activists are no criminals. We should not be wasting any state resources prosecuting them. We call on Ramaphosa and the NPA to give amnesty to all Fees Must Fall activists and let them all go back to complete their studies in peace.
Statement issued by the Economic Freedom Fighters, 23 August 2018
