Calls for Gordhan and ANC to 'fall' continue outside commission

Calls for Pravin Gordhan to resign - and for the expropriation of land without compensation - kept EFF supporters busy on Tuesday as they awaited the arrival of their leader Julius Malema.

Leaders from all five regions in Gauteng and regional command teams (RCTs) took turns on stage, calling for both Gordhan and the ANC to fall.

As Gordhan continued with day two of his testimony at the state capture inquiry, the EFF staged a bigger picket than Monday's outside the Hill on Empire building where the commission is sitting.

"We are going to be consistent in our calls for Pravin to resign. We are going to bring our numbers whenever he appears at this commission. We stand by our resolution that he must go," EFF Gauteng secretary Moshe Koma said.

Party members, clad in their trademark red and armed with whistles and placards, braved the drizzle, chanting and singing ahead of Malema’s address. Placards saying  "Gordhan to fall", "Down with white monopoly capital" and "Forward with expropriation of land without compensation" dominated the sea of red.

EFF Ekurhuleni chairperson Mampuru Mampuru took the opportunity to garner support for the party, calling it "the only hope for black South Africans".

"Defend our people from racist white South Africans who still refuse to give us our land back. We are the ones South Africans have been waiting for, we are the ones who will rescue South Africa from the hands of vultures, to carry the dignity of a black child on our shoulders," he said.

Mampuru branded the EFF an "organisation of the poor, by the poor, formed to represent the poor".