By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) president Julius Malema has defended the party’s ideological stance against critics, who label him a dictator and authoritarian.
Malema’s address come on the second day of the party’s third National People’s Assembly (NPA).
The conference will choose the party’s leaders over the next five years and formulate party policies.
The EFF’s third NPA comes at a time when the party is battling with the poaching of its members by the MK party.
The future of the party is expected to be discussed at this NPA, especially after reported proposals from the party’s former national chairperson Dali Mpofu that the party should merge with the MK party.
Malema said some politicians described themselves as progressive or pro-black but failed to prove their loyalty to the cause of black people.
His party has been accused by the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party of sowing division among black people.
This is because Malema had refused a proposal by former president Jacob Zuma, the founder of the MK party, to close down the EFF and take all its supporters to the MK party.
“Blackness should not be used as a shield for opportunism or to escape one’s wrongdoing.”
The desperate need for black solidarity must not be taken advantage of by individuals who manipulate the black identity to avoid accounting for how they have jeopardized black liberation,” he said.
It was unclear if Malema was referring to Zuma and the MK party. However, he spoke about leaders who had the chance to advance black unity when they were in power but failed to do so.
“There are forces today who have discovered the cause of black unity after they previously undermined it while they were in power,” he said.
Malema’s comments come after the party secured only 9.52% of the vote in the national and provincial elections earlier this year, a 1.28% decline from the support in 2019. Following its showing in the May polls, key figures in the EFF, Floyd Shivambu, Busisiwe Makhwebane and Mpofu, deserted the party and crossed the political aisle to join the uMkhonto Wesizwe (MK) party.
Malema said the EFF had used its votes in parliament to push forward for expropriation of land without compensation during Zuma’s time as president.
He said the ANC rejected this at the time.
“This was rejected by a former liberation movement where black unity existed.
“We must never allow black consciousness to be used to con our people or allow it to sanitise the legacy of failure and corruption.”
Much of Malema’s report focused on reminding NPA delegates of the key ideological tenets of the EFF, with a lecture on Marxism, Leninism and Fanonism.
He said Marxism (to analyse the class contradictions in SA), Leninism (to provide perspective on the role of the state and the purpose of forming a leftist organisation) and Fanonism (to appropriately characterise the impact of colonial conquest and racism) make up the guiding force for the EFF on its quest to defend, rebuild and advance the struggle for economic freedom.
By repeating the key tenets of the EFF’s ideology, Malema sought to remind them that the party’s enemy is capitalism, which their seven cardinal pillars seek to dismantle.
Malema went further to defend the EFF’s ideological stance against those who criticised him for being a dictator or authoritarian, and urged EFF members to remain steadfastly committed to the party’s core ideology.
“Our government of the EFF will see the destruction of all classes and the creation of [an] egalitarian society where all shall be free and equal and none will benefit at the expense of another… If you have a full grasp of our class struggle, the historical development and contemporary application, you will begin to appreciate Marxism as a tool of analysis and go on to explain it to our communities in their own languages, “Malema said.
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Video Courtesy of EFFSA.