Cape Town - The EFF says it will not participate in the election of a new president later on Thursday, but will instead call for the dissolution of Parliament.
The National Assembly is to elect a president following the resignation of former president Jacob Zuma late on Wednesday.
The EFF and the DA said they will not vote for ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa to be elected as state president.
EFF leader Julius Malema said: “The EFF will therefore not participate in the election of a new president to replace Zuma because we do not want to legitimise anyone from the ruling party”.
He said the EFF “at the first opportunity to lead a motion in Parliament, EFF will call on the dissolution of Parliament in favour of early elections. This is to allow our people to renew Parliament mandate through general elections and not some career driven elite pact”.
The EFF was supposed to debate its motion of no confidence in Zuma if he refused to resign on Wednesday.
EFF leader lists reasons for #ZumaResigns, he says the list is long, but he’ll mention a few @IOLPolitics @IOL pic.twitter.com/7SD4mM7gLL
— Mary Jane Mphahlele (@Mary_JaneSA) February 15, 2018
Malema #ZumaResigns reasons @IOL @IOLPolitics pic.twitter.com/RNXBgXdTaB
— Mary Jane Mphahlele (@Mary_JaneSA) February 15, 2018
Malema continues with reasons #EFFPresser pic.twitter.com/YEeHmUfFqk
— Mary Jane Mphahlele (@Mary_JaneSA) February 15, 2018
Malema said Zuma left office for reasons which, he claimed were widely known. He said Zuma did not leave office because of his political conscience but of his “sins”.
“There are so many other reasons why the resignation of Jacob Zuma is long overdue, and for him to claim ignorance of all these represents over-exaggerated sense of aloofness and self-seeking greed. Each and every one of these issues are reasons enough why Zuma’s presidency was no longer bearable,” said Malema.
He said the EFF has no confidence in the entire leadership of the ANC, and believes that those who will be elected after Zuma, “will be nothing but substitutes in the same corruption game and competition,”
“If Ramaphosa becomes president, he is simply going to replace Zuma’s corrupt stooges with his own corruption stooges. The recent appointment of Sifiso Dabengwa into Eskom board is a worrying sign that Ramaphosa will replace Zuma thieves with his own thieves,” added Malema.