EFF will help DA take Joburg, Tshwane - but there will be no coalitions

The EFF will vote for the DA in Johannesburg‚ Tshwane‚ Nelson Mandela Bay and Ekurhuleni‚ but it has rejected a formal coalition with the party‚ EFF leader Julius Malema said on Wednesday.

This means the DA mayoral candidates can be sworn in but other issues will be decided on an ad-hoc basis.

It spells minority governments in half of the country’s metros.

The EFF would exert its influence in municipalities through the budgets and not through coalitions‚ Malema said.

Malema said the ANC took “collective responsibility” and did not want to recall its president‚ and was “wishy washy” about the EFF’s preconditions for a coalition — which included land nationalisation‚ free education‚ no e-tolls‚ a probe of the Guptas and no nuclear deal with the Russians.

“The ANC had a choice between Zuma and the metros … they chose Zuma … so let them lose the metros‚” Malema said.

The EFF is choosing to support opposition parties in all hung municipalities‚ including the IFP in KwaZulu-Natal and the Service Delivery Forum in Rustenburg.

The party did not want power or positions and would sit in opposition benches‚ Malema said.

“Every budget passed by these municipalities will have to come to us. We will have to see it for the next five years‚” Malema said.

The EFF wanted to make sure people in poor areas such as Diepsloot and Orange Farm benefited from municipal budgets.

"This is the new politics‚" he said.

Talks with the ANC

Among the demands the EFF made of the ANC was the firing of President Jacob Zuma.

Malema said the EFF had refused to discuss coalitions with the ANC’s Gauteng provincial leadership‚ and requested that the ruling party’s national leadership deal with its national leadership.

The ANC‚ led by Gauteng Premier David Makhura and provincial chairman Paul Mashatile‚ agreed to this demand and dispatched big wigs such as Gwede Mantashe‚ Jessie Duarte‚ Zweli Mkhize‚ Andries Nel and Jeff Radebe.

In that discussion‚ Malema said the following demands were made:

- A 6% expropriation of land;

- Nationalisation of banks and other strategic assets;

- Free education;

- Removal of Die Stem from the national anthem;

- Complete scrapping of e-tolls;

- Cancellations of the nuclear deal with the Russians;

- A judicial inquiry on the Gupta family; and

- the firing of Zuma as president of the country.

TMG Digital/BDlive