Pretoria - Businesspeople will have to dig deep in their pockets to share a table with EFF president Julius Malema at the party’s upcoming gala dinner.
The exclusive dinner, set for July 27 at Emperors Palace, will cost R1.2 million in a “platinum package” to sit at the same table with Malema.
It will be a curtain-raiser for the party’s 10th birthday bash expected to take place at the FNB Stadium two days later.
This was revealed on the party’s website on Monday night which included a video of Malema pleading for donations as small as R10.
In a separate video the party’s treasurer-general is shown asking EFF supporters to donate cows, vegetables, groceries, T-shirts or buses.
A gold package will have business leaders rubbing shoulders at various tables for R750 000 each, with the party’s deputy president Floyd Shivhambu, secretary-general Marshall Dlamini and national chairperson Veronica Mente.
The silver tables costing R500 000 will be hosted by EFF MPs while the bronze table will have guests forking out R250 000.
The guests will enjoy a three-course meal, welcome drinks and branding opportunities while the buyer will be offered tickets to the VIP marquee at the main bash depending on the package they chose.
In the recorded video Malema pleads with supporters: “We need resources to finance this organisation; without resources, this organisation will never succeed. The party depends on genuine donations and contributions from peace-loving South Africans and revolutionaries from the African continent and the diaspora.
“We call upon all of you to make donations to the EFF because we must finance our own revolution; if we don’t finance our own revolution, counter-revolutionaries will hijack it.”
In the same video Malema brags about the “successes” of the party over the past 10 years.
“Our organisation will be celebrating 10 years of unbroken struggle, 10 years of anti-corruption, 10 years of fighting racism, 10 years of being in the forefront of the land, 10 years of making sure that the African people are represented without fear or favour, 10 years of ensuring that black professionals are not looked down (upon) but respected and treated as counterparts,” Malema says.
“It is possible; it is in our hands that the organisation formed by black people can remain a genuine organisation that continues to represent black people. Let us make it possible, revolutionaries.”
In another video treasurer-general Omphile Maotwe says the party is “the only shield in defence of the lives of our people on the continent and the diaspora”. She says the gains and achievements of the EFF in the past 10 years have “touched the lives of our people in all spheres of society after they had been betrayed by the ANC”.
“We all now have a place to call home, and that is the EFF … celebrate 10 years of the EFF by donating a cows, vegetables, groceries, T-shirts, buses and anything within your means,” she says.
Pretoria News