Julius Malema delivers EFF political report at Nasrec, Johannesburg, on Friday, 13 December 2024. [Image: Nasreen Naidoo / Salaamedia]
Julius Malema, president of Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), put his party’s declining support down to earnest efforts to hinder it.
Delivering the organisation’s political report on Friday, he told the more than 2 500 delegates gathered that the “White capitalist establishment” had identified EFF as Enemy Number One.
“This identification of our movement as an enemy resulted in a concerted campaign to destabilise the movement through a smear campaign,” he claimed.
Formerly the third-biggest party on the South African political stage, EFF slipped to fourth position in May. It got less than 10 percent of the vote and was overtaken by uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) in the national election.
Malema continued: “The EFF experienced its first electoral decline and suffered unprecedented levels of sabotage and infiltration. It is for this reason that the theme for this NPA is ‘Defend, Rebuild and Advance the struggle for economic freedom.”
Professor Lesiba Teffo, a lecturer and political analyst at University of South Africa (UNISA), called for deep introspection.
“They should ask themselves where are they? Why are they where they are today? Where did we lose the plot? Where did it go wrong?”
He said delegates at its national people’s assembly, happening in Nasrec, Johannesburg, also had to reconnect with the masses.
“In as much as they must reflect on themselves and where they lost the plot, they must speak to policy, they must speak to the existential challenges the people out there are confronted with,” he said.
The conference continues tomorrow, when members are expected to vote for a new leadership.
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