---
title: "Moneybags Malema promises NMB free water and electricity, and bigger RDP houses"
description: "EFF president Julius Malema promised Nelson Mandela Bay residents free water and electricity, bigger RDP houses, more social grants and free school meals and uniforms – pledges that stretch well beyond the powers and responsibilities of local government."
type: "NewsArticle"
publisher: "Daily Maverick"
site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za"
section: "LOCAL ELECTIONS 2026"
author: "Andisa Bonani"
author_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/andisa-bonani/"
canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-10-04-moneybags-malema-promises-nmb-free-water-and-electricity-and-bigger-rdp-houses/"
published: "2026-10-04T20:21:58"
lang: "en-ZA"
word_count: 1316
---

# Moneybags Malema promises NMB free water and electricity, and bigger RDP houses

> EFF president Julius Malema promised Nelson Mandela Bay residents free water and electricity, bigger RDP houses, more social grants and free school meals and uniforms – pledges that stretch well beyond the powers and responsibilities of local government.

By Andisa Bonani · Published 4 October 2026, 22:21 SAST

## Key points
- EFF leader Julius Malema has promised free water and electricity for social grant recipients if the party takes control of municipalities after the 4 November elections.
- Launching the EFF manifesto in Gqeberha, Malema pledged higher grants;free school meals, uniforms and books; and no university registration fees for poor students.
- He condemned the ANC’s “matchbox” RDP houses and opaque allocation systems, promising larger homes and transparent housing and job lists.
- Malema vowed to overhaul Nelson Mandela Bay’s failing infrastructure – from sewerage and asbestos pipes to unreliable electricity – and turn the municipality into a “construction site”.

## Content

![Image](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/1zg9h83UC9BfzAep6_vm7tsljtI=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/2998/ElectionLogo-Variation1_515179.jpg)

Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) president Julius Malema has vowed to provide free water and electricity to all social grant recipients and to upgrade decaying infrastructure if the party takes control of the metro after the 4 November local government elections.

Malema made the bold statements at Motherwell Stadium in NU2, Gqeberha, Eastern Cape, at the party’s manifesto launch on Saturday, 3 October.

He spoke at a packed venue to hundreds of supporters who had braved the rain and waited almost three hours for the EFF leader to take the stage.

Malema said pensioners receiving social grants should not have to pay for expensive water and electricity, because they are poor.

“When you give them social grant, you do so because they are poor, but why are they poor only on this aspect but rich when it’s time to pay for water and electricity?”

Malema said he did not understand why electricity had to be so expensive when coal was produced in the country.

“We want affordable and reliable electricity. We don’t want the kind of electricity that is affected when it’s raining like today it’s affected and there are outages. Electricity should be affordable.”

He added that Eskom’s job was to produce affordable electricity for citizens and that it should therefore not sell electricity to make a profit. The utility should make just enough to be able to run its affairs, he said.

![Julius Malema, leader of the EFF, speaks in Gqeberha ahead of the local elections 2026.](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/y7lkc44GnAe05nkoVH2gBK5JHco=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/orphans/Andisa-Manifesto2_674419.jpg)

*EFF president Julius Malema launches the party’s manifesto in Gqeberha on 3 October. (Photo: Andisa Bonani)*

Malema did not explain how the financially struggling metro would be able to afford providing free water and electricity to social grant recipients. The municipality’s electricity department [is already running at a deficit of more than R1-billion](https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-07-23-just-49-days-of-cash-left-austerity-measures-introduced-in-the-bay/?dm_campaign=inform&dm_medium=card-link&dm_position=1&dm_source=blocks-grid&utm_source=chatgpt.com), with rates being used to subsidise the cost of buying bulk electricity from Eskom.

The Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber has warned that [electricity losses could reach R1.7-billion](https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-03-05-nelson-mandela-bay-risks-defaulting-on-eskom-payments-warns-business-chamber/?dm_campaign=inform&dm_medium=card-link&dm_position=11&dm_source=blocks-grid&utm_source=chatgpt.com) and that the metro risks defaulting on its Eskom payments.

The metro is also battling to maintain its water infrastructure, with about[7,000 active leaks along its 4,700km network of decaying pipelines](https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-02-03-nelson-mandela-bay-faces-4700km-waterpipe-crisis-as-losses-hit-over-60/?utm_source=chatgpt.com). Its infrastructure directorate has warned that its maintenance budget will not last the financial year.

Malema said that if the EFF took over the Bay, it would start by visiting South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) offices to obtain grant recipient data and incorporate it into the municipality’s systems.

“So that the municipality is able to pick up social grant recipients and exempt them from paying for water and electricity. The industries that operate here and the rich must pay for these services; they must subsidise the poor for making them sick by contaminating water and the environment,” he said.

Malema did not explain who had contaminated the water or the environment.

He promised to increase the grant for pensioners to R4,500, because senior citizens were the ones holding poor families together.

Malema emphasised that social grants do not come from the ruling African National Congress (ANC), and therefore the elderly should not vote for the ANC in fear that they will lose their grants if the party lost power.

“The ANC in fact does not have money; that’s why they can’t pay their staff and hardly have any \[election\] posters. Don’t think if you remove the ANC from government you won’t get the social grant. In anything you purchase, on the receipt there will be a VAT deduction, and that’s what pays for your social grant, including the tax and not the ANC.”

He said the best people to receive social grant were grandmothers as they took care of the entire family.

“In the whole of Motherwell there’s not a single family that can say they’ve never benefited from a granny. We know when you give money to the elderly you are giving directly to the poor. The child grant must also be increased. Children can’t be expected to work to feed their families. We don’t want our girl children to have sugar daddies like Shadrack Sibiya; government must be the sugar daddy and look after you.”

Again, Malema did not explain where the money for the proposed increase in social grants would come from or why he was making promises about grants during a local government election campaign, given that social grants are administered by the national government and are not a municipal function.

He said children in school should be fed three times a day so that they were able to concentrate on what is being taught and not on their hungry stomachs.

Malema said free education in the form of books and uniforms should mandatory, because both are expensive and prisoners get them at no cost.

“Prisoners get uniforms for free; police and nurses who receive salaries get free uniforms. We want all children to be the same when they are at school; no one should look poorer than the other,” he said.

“We want when you leave matric for the TVET colleges or universities to not worry about registration fees. These clowns \[the current government\] take you to no-fee schools for 12 years. When you pass matric they want registration fees in institutions of higher learning as if the matric certificates come with money.”

![EFF supporters gather in Gqeberha to hear Julius Malema launch the party’s manifesto ahead of local elections 2026.](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/ZYsIDqa9a3zpGpWnrsDkLUAiWUg=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/orphans/Andisa-Manifesto1_494558.jpg)

*EFF supporters weathered a storm in Gqeberha and filled up Motherwell Stadium in NU2 to listen to the party launch its manifesto on 3 October 2026, ahead of the local elections on 4 November. (Photo: EFF Eastern Cape / Facebook)*

Malema said when those who attended no-fee schools arrived at the institutions of higher learning, all their information should be readily available, because the same government and department were involved.

“When you arrive they must know you come from a poor family and not ask if your parents are working or whether your father is still alive. This government will issue you a death certificate for your deceased father, but when you get to university they ask the details of the same person they issued the death certificate for.”

Malema did not explain how the municipality would fund these measures. Education is primarily a national and provincial government responsibility, rather than a core municipal function, raising questions about how his promises fit into a local government election campaign.

Malema also criticised the ANC government for providing “match-box sized” and substandard RDP (aka reconstruction and development) houses.

He said EFF wanted to restore the dignity of the black child by constructing houses big enough for families.

“Apartheid houses are still standing, while RDP houses are falling already. That’s not quality. We want quality for our people. We want the RDP houses list to be made public, it should in the municipality and accessible to all residents so that the process is clear and people don’t jump the line.”

While housing is primarily a national and provincial government responsibility, Nelson Mandela Bay has been involved in housing delivery and was appointed as a developer in 2021, with provincial funding allocated for housing construction.

Malema did not explain how an EFF-run metro would fund larger houses or how his proposed changes would fit in with the existing provincial and national housing programmes.

Malema said the same transparency should apply when it came to job opportunities in the council, so that people were not appointed in ward councillor offices based on the political party they came from.

Malema told supporters that the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality would never be the same again after the elections as the EFF would turn it into a construction site.

“We’ll make sure that there’s proper sewerage infrastructure for our people; sewage should not be running down the streets and our children playing in such conditions. The water we are drinking is not good for human consumption because it runs through old pipes; those asbestos pipes are not healthy. We need new infrastructure to ensure drinkable and healthy water, with every household with taps in the yards.” **DM**