Durban - EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu said his party had marked the eThekwini region as a target for the local government elections because of the divisions in the ANC locally.
Shivambu and EFF “commander-in-chief” Julius Malema would spend the next two weeks mobilising support in the region, which the ANC regards as its biggest support base in the country.
Shivambu told his party campaign volunteers in Newtown C near Inanda that they should take advantage of squabbles in the ruling party.
“They (ANC leaders) have shown that they are not ready to take South Africa forward. So we must take charge of our wards while they are busy fighting, killing each other, changing cabinet and all sorts of things. We must take charge of all government institutions,” he said.
When he arrived in Newtown C, Shivambu found party activists dancing and singing struggle songs outside a local community hall, but instead of joining them he quickly went straight inside to address them.
After finishing his speech in less than five minutes he told them he was rushing to campaign in Sasolburg, Free State, before he got into a white Mercedes-Benz headed for King Shaka International Airport.
He said the party’s main target in KwaZulu-Natal was the eThekwini Municipality since it had become clear that “electorates here (Durban) are not going to vote for the ANC”.
“Even their own research revealed that people are looking for alternatives,” he said.
Shivambu told the volunteers that they must go from door to door to campaign every day, and promised voters that the eThekwini Municipality under the EFF would create jobs.
“We are going to create a municipality that is going to demolish all the informal settlements and give proper houses to the people. Give electricity, give the land, and give everything that is meaningful. Improve the lives of the people,” he said.
He told the volunteers that when they visited houses to campaign they should do it in small groups, which he termed “guerillas”. He said by doing this they would be able to sway traditional ANC voters to join the EFF.
“We must not work in huge groups. We must work as guerilla units, because we are now in a guerilla warfare. By August 2 all volunteers must have spoken to all the voters in the wards,” he said, adding that they should target every area.
The EFF chairman in the eThekwini Region, Bonginkosi Ngiba, said Shivambu and Malema would visit Durban for the next two weeks to monitor campaigns in branches.
“We took a decision that since Durban is our priority, the CIC (commander-in-chief) and his deputy would take turns to visit local wards,” said Ngiba.
Ngiba said Shivambu returned to Durban late on Wednesday to draft a plan of how he and Malema would campaign in the city.
On Friday Shivambu would visit the Elangeni Technical Vocational Education and Training Centre in Inanda to address students who were disgruntled because the National Student Financial Aid Scheme was not paying for their tuition.
The Mercury