The EFF has indicated that it will field its own candidate for the mayorship of Johannesburg instead of backing the DA or the ANC for the city highest post.
This comes as current mayor Herman Mashaba is planning to step down, a decision he took last month following the election of Helen Zille as the DA’s chairperson of the federal council.
Mashaba, who enjoyed close ties with the EFF, also terminated his membership of the DA, saying it no longer represented the country’s future.
Addressing the media on the EFF’s state of readiness for its upcoming national conference at Nasrec Expo Centre in Johannesburg, party leader Julius Malema said the EFF felt it was time it also took control of the city instead of being kingmakers.
Malema said the party was not yet in talks with either the ANC or the DA over the filling of the post, adding that the two parties were also fielding their own candidates without consulting it.
“There is a nonsense I am not prepared to entertain of why we are not supporting the DA. We supported the DA and it is their turn now to support the EFF. It is only fair. Why should we always the white man? Why can’t the white man find it in himself to support a black man?” Malema said.
He said the DA had an obligation to back the EFF as it did when the official opposition forwarded Mashaba to be the mayor.
“The only fair thing the DA can say is that ‘guys you tried, you gave it to us (and) we failed and our guy left and therefore we now support you’,” Malema said.
Under Mashaba, the EFF has successfully pushed for pro-poor policies including the insourcing of security guards and cleaners as part of trade-offs for its support for the DA-led council.
In his resignation, Mashaba - whose last day at the helm of the city is 27 November - accused the DA caucus of frustrating the pro-poor policies, claiming they were not DA policies.
Malema said the DA had more obligation to support the EFF candidate than the ANC because it had enjoyed the support of the EFF under Mashaba, whom the red berets hailed as a more of a community activist than a DA politician.
“We supported their candidate and their candidate left them. It is not our problem. We are now here, so they must support us,” he said.
He said the party all systems were in place for the party’s national elective conference next month at the same venue.