EFF: We are trendsetters

The advert for property company Vineyards Estates.

The advert for property company Vineyards Estates.

Published Jun 19, 2014

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 Johannesburg - The Economic Freedom Fighters are trendsetters and people will copy them, the EFF said on Thursday in response to a property advertisement.

“You can't help it, the EFF has the capacity and ability to really set off a lot of things that people do in relation to us,” spokesman Mbuyiseni Ndlozi told Sapa.

“During the elections the ANC wore red berets and the DA wore blue berets. That is the trend that we set, whether they use it wrongly or rightly - that's what happens when you are in the public eye.”

He said he had seen the advertisement in a newspaper.

The advert for property company Vineyards Estates has a photo of five men and women dressed in red overalls and red berets and one woman wearing a red cleaner's outfit. All of them look straight ahead and have their arms folded.

According to the caption one of them is CEO Anton du Plessis, described in the advert as “commander-in-chief”, the title EFF leader Julius Malema gave himself.

“Emigrating?” is written on top of the advert.

The advert reads: “If you can't see yourself embracing change as we at Vineyards Estates have, you may be needing to sell or let your home now, or perhaps in just under five years time... Whatever the timing, speak to the Boutique Southern Suburbs Property Specialists... Vineyards Estates.”

In May, when Malema was sworn in as an MP in the National Assembly, he and other male EFF MPs shunned the traditional suits for red overalls. They removed their red hard hats before taking the oath. Women EFF MPs, were dressed as cleaners, with headscarves and aprons.

The advert sparked interest on social media website Twitter.

@geoffreyyork tweeted: “South African property firm is using 'fear of Julius Malema' to sell homes of fleeing middle class.”

@TheStuartTaylor said: “Dear #VineyardEstates, leave the comedy to the comics... You focus on selling overpriced real estate.”

Another user, @KatarinaHedren tweeted: “If this advert is not a joke, I'll add it to the growing pile of things that make me go #wtf #VineyardEstates”.

Du Plessis said he would reply in the afternoon.

In October, Malema said there would be no true reconciliation in South Africa as whites owned the land.

“You (whites) are more than welcome. This is your country, no one should make you (feel) threatened, but you will be unsettled if you are not ready to heed the call,” he told students at the Vaal University of Technology (VUT) in Vanderbijlpark.

“Let's share the land; let's share the minerals.”

Malema referred to the land owned by whites as “stolen property”. He said it might have been land which they inherited, but claimed their grandfathers had killed black men for it. - Sapa

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