After EFF leaders from across the country met over the weekend, Julius Malema, flanked by his lieutenants, on Monday outlined his the party’s vision for 2017. For Malema, Monday’s press conference was subdued, but he still used the rhetoric of battle. It’s a fight to save the country from kleptocrats, a fight to return to the revolution, both locally and internationally. “You will thank us later or when we’re dead,” said the EFF CIC.

The party has declared 2017 “the year of the branch”. Some ANC leaders have notions of reforming the party’s cancerous decline, of fostering unity or addressing the toxic party election process, but unless there’s a radical intervention and those who don’t benefit from reform have a crisis of consciousness, factions will continue to fester within the ruling party, leading to the kind of divisions that forced Malema, and much of the ANC Youth League, out. As the ANC continues to destroy itself, opposition parties need only to twist the knife and focus on building structures ahead of the 2019 elections. The EFF is primed to do both.

Malema was at his best on Monday while throwing insults and making allegations against perceived supporters of President Jacob Zuma and his friends, the Gupta family.

“This country has collapsed. It is on autopilot,” he said, speaking on the EFF’s intervention in the case against Bonginkosi Khanyile, the UKZN student leader who has for months been held in remand, awaiting bail. “The only thing that is still standing and is giving some form of confidence and hope is the judiciary,” said Malema, while criticising the handling of Khanyile’s case.

Malema blamed the country’s “collapse” on ANC sellouts.

State Security Minister David Mahlobo was hammered. Asked about the public protector’s leaked provisional report on the loan given to Absa in the dying days of apartheid, Malema said the bank was guilty of taking an unsubstantiated payout as well as letting white South Africans conceal and hide their wealth by transferring money out of the country. The current campaign against Absa was, however, seen as “nonsense” orchestrated to defend the Gupta family.

Malema accused Mahlobo of asking and paying people to dig up dirt on the Rupert family, held up as a symbol of white minority capital. He said the minister was running a campaign, similar to the establishment of the Workers Association Union, allegedly set up to rival the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union in the platinum belt, with the blessing and funding from Zuma and the security ministry.

“Can you imagine us marching with those people in buses paid for by Guptas?” Malema asked on Monday. The EFF has been under heavy criticism for failing to continue to target Absa in the wake of the public protector’s leaking report. “Timing is everything in a revolution,” he said. He claimed the EFF would target the bank when it was ready, and when it did, the world would know.

Malema, who as usual was the only one of the EFF leadership to speak at the press conference, also made allegations against new Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane and Water and Sanitation Minister Nomvula Mokonyane. He said the party regretted supporting Mkhwebane’s candidacy. She was now only trying to protect the state and was found in the Gupta family’s kitchen, said Malema. He continued with his past allegations that the department of water and sanitation is corrupt to the core, and claimed all procurement deals first go through an outside advisor.

Ignoring others who have also acted against state abuse, Malema portrayed the EFF as a saviour against state capture and an inspiration for black fights for justice and equality.

In 2017, the party will continue to target allegations of ANC corruption and take any recognition it can get for the governing party’s scandals, he said.

What’s equally important for the EFF, beyond what’s either a PR campaign or a real attempt to tackle corruption, is how it uses its influence in municipal governments and how it builds party structures. After last year’s municipal elections, the EFF used its council votes to oust the ANC in Johannesburg and Tshwane and install DA governments. Malema expanded on the strategy on Monday. On the ANC, he said, “They buy people. They buy votes. They even use state money to do that, so we want to take as many resources as possible from the ANC.” He claimed the DA is not a threat, had reached its voter ceiling, and the ANC would be paralysed without government money to fund its network of patronage, leaving the EFF as the only viable voting option.

The Fighters do, however, want the chance to prove themselves in government. There’s a by-election coming up in Metsemaholo, Free State. The ANC lost the municipality in the local government elections to a coalition of opposition parties and the upcoming vote is a chance for the DA to pay back the Fighters’ support and install an EFF government. “If they refuse, it will be unfortunate. If they refuse we will give it to them [the DA],” said Malema. The EFF wants to lead but its long-term strategy means it will support the DA, or other opposition parties, to oust the ANC.

The EFF will continue to shame the ANC in the governing party’s year of turmoil. The EFF will again target Zuma during his state of the nation address. The question is, can the party build its branches as the ANC continues to suffer declines? The EFF has declared 2017 the year of the branch and is focusing its events on targeting local rather than national supporters. Only time will tell whether it can build structures that might one day rival the ANC. DM

Photo: EFF Congress in late 2014, Mangaung. (Greg Nicolson)