Johannesburg – The EFF’s Julius Malama has described the national shutdown as a “resounding success”.
Malema, who took part in the march from Church Square to the Union Buildings in Pretoria, addressed protesters briefly ahead of the handing over of the memorandum of demands to the government at the Union Buildings.
Some of the members of the party took their march to Sandton, marching from Alexandra.
The EFF, with the African Transformation Movement (ATM), the United Democratic Movement (UDM), the African Radical Economic Transformation Alliance (Areta), and the South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu), took part in the protest against President Cyril Ramaphosa over the Eskom crisis and other issues affecting the country.
“Today, we are here to protest … But today we have an appointment with the streets. We are not going to run. We are not going to do anything. We are going to walk nicely to raise our concerns. This is the most successful shutdown in the history of South Africa,” Malema said.
He said the success of the shutdown was made evident by the number of businesses that listened to the EFF when it encouraged them to close their operations today.
“Ramaphosa said, ‘open your businesses; I will protect you’. But Malema said to close your businesses. Look who they listened to between Ramaphosa and Malema."
He accused the ANC of political jealousy after the recent utterances against the shutdown by ANC members such as Ronald Lamola and Fikile Mbalula.
“Do not listen to Lamola and Fikile Mbalula. They suffer from political jealousy. They are singing for their supper. The success of the ANC depends on Russia, China, Angola, and Nigeria. We have no single country behind us. No one is supporting the EFF. We paid for 196 buses, and those buses wrote a letter saying the government forced them to cancel. They sent this letter this morning at 2am. They took our money and succumbed to pressure from the government,” Malema said.
The Star