ECONOMIC FREEDOM FIGHTERS EFF MEDIA STATEMENT

Tuesday, 16 October 2018

1 .PROVINCIAL PEOPLE'S ASSEMBLIES

We are proud to announce that the EFF, has concluded all of its Provincial People's Assemblies, across all nine provinces of the country. All of these PPA's were in the main constituted by no less than 90% of launched branches, in good standing, across the 4392 South African municipal wards. We are particularly proud of all our delegates who participated robustly, including contesting leadership positions, without any incident of disruption and violence. There is no better proof of EFF's growth and formidability than the success of consolidating organisational presence across the entire country. We can now confidently confirm that we are stronger than ever before.

2. SRC ELECTIONS IN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS

We would like to express our profound gratitude to all students in South African institutions of higher learning, for voting in their numbers, to put the EFF Students Command into SRCs. This is an important sign of the confidence that the EFF and its ideas enjoy amongst the young intelligentsia across the country. We call on all the EFF SC led SRCs, to always without fail, prioritise poor students and never compromise on academic excellence. We also call on them to work hard in 2019, to turn these SRC election victories into EFF votes.

Furthermore, we call on all students of Wits University to go online in their numbers, today and tomorrow, and vote for the EFF SC. Let uphephela land at Wits University, like it did in IJJ, and UNISA to claim all Johannesburg university campuses to economic freedom in our lifetime.

3. JOBS SUMMIT We note the Job Summit convened by the government, as part of the plethora of conferences, indicative of the sad reality that President Ramaphosa's government has no plan for the country's problems. Our immediate view in relation to the threat of job losses, looming in many sectors of our country's economy is that we should pass a Jobs Protection Act, which will outlaw massive retrenchments without exhausting all available options.

Above all, a sustainable strategy for creating jobs necessarily begins with a comprehensive, state led industrial development with concrete protection of infant industries. There must be a conscious political will to drive development by the state, otherwise constant dependence on the market will fail, as it has failed in the last 24 years.

4. INDEPENDENT POWER PRODUCERS

We are in possession of information suggestive of nepotism and corruption, which occurred in processes of licensing Independent Power Producers. This information contains names of prominent people and their companies. At this moment, we are in the process of ascertaining the veracity of the information, and exchanging notes with our lawyers to check the legal implications of releasing such information to the public.

5. REMOVAL OF NHLANHLA NENE

We welcome the removal of Nhlanhla Nene, former Finance Minister, and note his replacement with Tito Mboweni. This is one of the major successes of the EFF in dismantling state capture, and all those who have enabled it, like Nhlanhla Nene.

He is not the last casualty of the State Capture Commission of Inquiry. Many are still going to follow, including those who have been portrayed as saviours and/or who pride themselves as having removed Zuma as president.

We know that Mboweni's appointment means that the Pravin Gordhan faction has lost control of treasury. They blame the EFF for this and are personally bruised. They have since gone on a large media campaign to try and discredit the EFF, so that it is silenced in the face of corruption, related to them and their kangaroo removal of people without any due process in state owned institutions. We are neither going to retreat nor surrender.

6. NATIONAL TREASURY IRREGULAR EXPENDITURE

The EFF notes with serious concern the Auditor General findings of irregular expenditure by the National Treasury in the financial year 2017/18. The Auditor General found that the Treasury incurred an irregular expenditure of R768.9 million because proper tender processes were not followed and the expenditure was not properly approved.

This includes R67 million spent on goods and services the National Treasury did not receive. We make specific mention of the Treasury because the department has a constitutional mandate to enforce compliance of public expenditure to ensure both transparency and expenditure control and enforce compliance with PFMA.

If the Treasury is failing to follow their own rules, they cannot be expected to enforce compliance and this in part explain why billions are lost through irregular awarding of tenders because others sees the Treasury doing it.

The explanation by the DG today at the Standing Committee of Finance that the Treasury couldn't locate the memorandum at the time of the audit as if it's a simple misunderstanding is unacceptable, demonstrate weak controls and expose the treasury as failing to be transparent.

We have exposed the shenanigans of the Treasury because when they come to the account to Parliament, they behave like law into themselves and don't follow the law even when they promulgate regulations to benefit certain banks. Consultants at the Treasury are appointed without competitive bidding but on the basis of connections with certain people and when we raised the matter in the Parliament, we are told we are targeting the Treasury unfairly.

7. VBS MUTUAL BANK REPORT

We note the release of the VBS Mutual Bank report and express great disgust at those who have facilitated the collapse of the bank for selfish and self-enrichment purposes, at the expense of the poor. VBS Mutual Bank was founded on the deposits of humble rural self-help financial associations like Stockvels and Burial Societies. The corruption and maladministration thereof saw many of the villagers unable to even bury their dead. We therefore reiterate that all those who have been found to have benefitted illegally from the bank's collapse must be criminally prosecuted.

However, we reject the witch-hunt and mob justice that seeks to declare people guilty through courts of public opinion. The law must take its course and all who are implicated must fully cooperate with law enforcement institutions.

The Deputy-President of the EFF — Floyd Shivambu - has taken the EFF leadership into confidence in relation to VBS media claims and we have no reason to doubt him, more so because he is not mentioned in the official Motau VBS report. The EFF has also not been mentioned in the report, neither has it been accused of any wrong doing. We note that several persons mentioned in the report are challenging the validity and lawfulness of the report on the basis that Advocate Motau did not afford them the right to put their side of the story. Therefore, any pronouncements based on the validity of the report are premature.

The enemies of our revolution who wish to see the EFF, which is the only voice of the poor silenced, are seeking to bring both our Deputy-President and the organisation through a back door into the VBS saga. We have full confidence in our Deputy-President, Floyd Shivambu, we remain united and unshaken by any and all attempts to slow down or discredit the EFF.

We reiterate that we reject, categorically, any suggestion and move to shutdown VBS Mutual Bank. The reported amount that has been lost in VBS Mutual Bank is RI.9 billion. We know that African Bank had lost close to R80 billion, yet it was bailed out by government and other banks. We call on all efforts to be focused on saving this bank of the black, poor and rural masses of our people. This must be done to ensure that the financial sector does not remain white dominated and untransformed.

Statement issued by the Economic Freedom Fighters, 16 October 2018