Durban - The EFF wants to challenge the election of Abantu Batho Congress (ABC) founder Philani Mavundla as eThekwini deputy mayor and a member of the municipality’s executive committee.
EFF leader Julius Malema on Thursday announced that the party had instructed its lawyers to look into the ANC’s decision to back Mavundla’s election as deputy mayor following the metropolitan municipality’s inaugural council meeting.
The ABC has two seats.
Mavundla was elected despite earlier claiming he was part of a group of small parties that wanted to oust the ANC.
”We have instructed our lawyers to look at what they did. Those positions belong to the ANC. We think something illegal could have happened there,” Malema said.
He undertook that the eThekwini Metro would be receiving court papers very soon.
”The ANC gave itself power it does not have. That’s a party seat, it’s allocated to a specific political party,” said Malema, adding that the executive committee positions were allocated by the Electoral Commission of SA.
Malema said the EFF’s lawyers were looking into the matter.
According to the EFF leader, eThekwini Mayor Mxolisi Kaunda, who was elected on Wednesday, would be removed in less than a year.
Malema said the EFF had also asked Metsimaholo Mayor Selloane Motjeane to resign as the party does not vote for the ANC.
He said Motjeane had resigned with immediate effect.
Malema also expressed his happiness with the manner in which the EFF performed in the local government elections earlier this month, when it garnered 982 seats in municipalities across the country.
”We are generally happy with how the EFF has performed. We don’t have big egos, the agenda is bigger than us. We have got a country to rescue,” he said.
Malema said the EFF’s immediate competitor was the ANC, and that when you remove the party from power, the playing field would be levelled.
”There is nothing magical that will happen between now and 2024 for the ANC to win Gauteng,” he predicted.
Malema asked: “Why do you want to feel sorry for the ANC? They must go to hell and burn. We have no sympathy for the ANC”.
He said the EFF entered the unsuccessful coalition talks with the ANC with the aim of ensuring that it is loyal to its decisions.
”We are leading a well oiled machinery determined to collapse the ruling party and the Oppenheimers who are the financiers of Ramaphosa, (ActionSA leader Herman) Mashaba and the DA,” Malema said.
He said the EFF held talks with suspended ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule about eThekwini and other municipalities.
”eThekwini was delivered by RET forces and not CR17 and not Luthuli House. They did not know what was happening at all. President Cyril Ramaphosa did not save one, not even one municipality. Nothing,” Malema explained, adding that the eThekwini metro was saved by Zuma and the RET forces in the municipality.
He said the ANC, for some reason, still believes it is not losing power.
”We are not here to revive the ANC. We are here to bury the ANC, and we are going to bury it,” Malema said.
Political Bureau