CHANON LECODEY MERRICKS
ONLINE_EDITOR
CIC JULIUS MALEMA POLITICAL OVERVIEW TO THE 2nd PLENUM OF THE 3rd NATIONAL PEOPLE’S ASSEMBLY
Officials of the EFF, Commissars who were elected in the 3rd National People’s Assembly, the Provincial Command Teams and Sub-Regional Leaders, Members of Parliament, Provincial Legislatures and Councillors.
Allow me to extend my deepest appreciation to you all, as the wall that stood between the destruction of this people’s movement and the liberation of our people.
It is you Commissars and Fighters who made those who have made it their mission to predict the death of the EFF eat humble pie, as you built the EFF across all the sub-regions of South Africa.
I salute you not only because you are loyal to the EFF, but because you are loyal to the grassroots struggles of ordinary people, even though you do not all suffer the conditions that the people you are trying to liberate are suffering.
Comrades and Fighters, many a time the popular media and capitalists try to shame us for having certain privileges that the people we lead do not have.
What escapes them, is that despite the advantages we have in society we continue to champion the struggles of the poorest of the poor, because we know that our happiness is incomplete while those we love, the masses of our people are suffering.
The leaders of the Fees Must Fall generation were registered students, who knew that their education is incomplete while other students are unable to access education.
The African lawyers and academics who led the struggles against Apartheid did not face the same challenges as ordinary people, yet they did not hesitate to sacrifice their privilege to free Africans.
Today, the EFF led by Parliamentarians who have unlimited airtime and unlimited data, led a struggle to oppose the expiration of data and airtime, because despite our privilege, we know where we come from and who makes us who we are.
I want to state it here and categorically in case anyone is confused. The EFF led the charge to defeat the expiry of data and airtime when no one else would, and ICASA has now agreed with the EFF that data and airtime must not expire!
It is this EFF that fights for the insourcing of security guards and cleaners, even though we as leaders do not have a history of occupying such roles. It is the EFF that fights against student debt even though as leaders we can afford to pay for our education.
We do this out of principle, and because to be a revolutionary is about the content of one’s mind, and not about what clothes you wear or what cars you drive.
We are the people’s vanguard and champions of the working class because we possess the ability to fight for that which we do not need, because we recognise that our access to a better life is incomplete while the black child lives in poverty.
The EFF remains the representation of the working class, of the downtrodden and of the forgotten masses of our people. It does not matter where we stay, it does not matter what we eat, our consciousness prevails over us because we are products of the poverty we want to defeat.
Commissars and Fighters, we are gathered here today to plan for the success of the revolution, because victory loves preparation.
This plenum presents us with an opportunity to reflect on the progress we have made thus far, but also to outline the plan and path to victory in the upcoming Local Government Elections
Guided by our Seven Non-Negotiable Cardinal Pillars and our Founding Manifesto, every action we take, every policy position we propose be it in Municipal councils, Provincial Legislatures or Parliament – we take one step forward towards Economic Freedom in Our Lifetime.
The current conditions are harsh on African people, as our people drown in unemployment, crime, gender-based violence and a failing economy. The government of the day has failed by all developmental metrics to ease the conditions of our people, and it may be fair to argue that conditions under the GNU have become worse.
Comrades the situation is made worse by a hostile environment internationally wherein we are seeing the rise of the politics of empire and imperialism, led by the United States of America (USA).
It would be irresponsible for us to reflect on our domestic conditions without taking into consideration that our lives are determined by what happens across the world.
On the Rise of Imperialism and the Threat of the USA
Commissars, those who have claimed that Marxism and Leninism are outdated ideas, are now confronted with the harshest prophecies of Marx and Lenin – that is the rise of imperialism as the highest form of capitalism.
The Western and Capitalist world is beginning to eat itself alive, and the anchor that will destroy western society is the very nation that has been the most aggressive in its capitalism, the USA.
As capitalism collapses, there is a growing sense that we are returning to the age of colonialism and domination through military strength, rather than cooperation and consensus.
The stage we are in is what Lenin refers to as the final stage of capitalism’s destiny of crisis and collapse.
The USA is currently in pursuit of the territorial division of the world in order to control global markets and provide greater influence of global corporations over the natural resources of society.
It is a nation led by a paranoid and possibly mentally ill individual, who has no regard for international law, for the logic of economy and for the science of politics.
As a result, we are all faced with a crisis because for too long capitalism has been the dominating economic order of the world.
As socialists, it is our duty in this moment to see the silver lining, and that is as capitalism collapses, we are given an opportunity to usher in a new world order – based on equality, prosperity for all and the return of the means of production into the hands of the people.
We must not view the current international moment as one of despair, but within it we must mobilise resistance, solidarity and a new era for humanity. This new era is one where the USA no longer exists as the so-called leader of the free world.
It is an era where humanity must speak boldly against the presence of US-military bases in foreign countries. It is an era where we must divorce the global economy from dependency on the dollar, it is an era where we technological advancement and military capacity must be built by all nations, so that we can defend ourselves against the threat of US-imperialism.
Comrades in as much as Donald Trump is a manifestation of tyranny and fascism, he is not a major departure from the core of what represents the character of the USA.
The USA has always been imperialistic, the USA has always been a destabilising force in the world, what has changed is that the leader of the USA today pursues the destructive policies of the USA openly and without pretending to be seeking peace.
Donald Trump is the naked face of what the USA has always been, violent, imperialist and evil. It was the President of the USA, Harry Truman who dropped the atomic bomb on innocent people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, killing more than 200 000 people.
It was Lyndon Johnson of the USA who invaded Vietnam, and under his authority human rights atrocities and sexual crimes were committed against the people of Vietnam.
It was George Bush who led a disinformation campaign that Iraq and Afghanistan had weapons of mass destruction, in order to justify causing instability in those nations in order to steal their oil.
Fellow Fighters it was Barack Obama who orchestrated the death of Brother leader Muammar Gaddafi, and till today Libya has not recovered and our African brothers are sold in a slave trade in that region.
I say this to highlight to you that Donald Trump is simply continuing a tradition of violence as foreign policy by the USA. When Trump invades Venezuela and kidnaps Nicolas Maduro, he is continuing a tradition of violence as foreign policy.
When Trump bombs Nigeria, bombs Iran and funds the genocide of the people of Palestine by Israel, he is continuing US policy of violence as a means to entrench US imperialism.
I have said this before that any expectation that after Donald Trump’s term comes to an end, that our relationship with the USA will stabilise is misplaced. Donald Trump is an extension of a history of destructive US foreign policy, and as long as South Africa stands with Palestine, then we will never know peace.
It is therefore important to be aware of this as we head to Local Government Elections here in South Africa and be aware of the possibility of US interference in our elections, be it through funding our ideological opponents, attempting to fracture our democracy using tribal lines and traditional leaders, or actively pursuing the imprisonment of leaders of the left in our country.
This election is not one that will be purely domestic, especially considering the propaganda machinery deployed against South Africa of a non-existent white genocide. We must begin to prepare ourselves for the worst, as the USA is determined to punish South Africa for standing up against Apartheid Israel.
We must never surrender even in the face of imprisonment or death. We must never be shaken and we must never compromise our sovereignty to please the United States of America.
On Domestic Conditions.
Commissars and Fighters, the conditions facing our people in South Africa have become so dire, that starvation has become a prominent cause for death.
Central to the crisis confronting our nation is collapsing municipalities which are unable to conduct basic service delivery and have become increasingly dependent on tendering and consultancy firms
Municipalities in South Africa are run by officials, and elected public representatives account to these officials more than they do to the people who elected them.
City managers, CFO’s and COO’s are the government of the day, and these individuals control politicians by colluding with them in crippling our municipalities.
Our communities are suffering rolling electricity and water outages, while large companies bribe their way out of paying for the use of these resources. The largest consumers of water and electricity are not the people in the suburbs or the townships, but companies, yet it is our people who bear the brunt of rising prices for their households.
We need to in this plenum develop a strategy of taking back our municipalities from the hands of officials and placing them under the control of the people, through incorruptible public representatives.
This plenum must come out with an idea of what is an ideal municipality and how can it sustain itself and our communities. If we do not do this analysis, then we will win broken municipalities without any idea how to revive them, and we will lose elections because our people will blame us for a broken system.
Comrades over and above that, budget after the budget it is the EFF which stands alone to call out how the equitable share model of National Treasury, which allocates the least amount of money to municipalities is illogical and outdated.
The logic of National Treasury which presumes that municipalities can sustain themselves through revenue collection and presumes that municipalities are resilient across the board is a recipe for failure. We need to review the equitable share model which subjects the coal face of service delivery, which is municipalities, to smaller allocations than provincial and national government.
The presumption that rural and township municipalities ought to sustain themselves through revenue collection alone in the same way metropolitan areas do is tragic, especially considering that the residents in rural and township municipalities are largely unemployed. We must never get tired of making this point because at the centre of the collapse of our municipalities is National Treasury’s illogical fiscal planning around our state infrastructure.
Comrades as much as we may be pleased with the victory of eliminating the expiry of data, there is a bigger war we need to wage against the prices for electricity.
It has become a norm that every quarter NERSA announces a hike in electricity prices condemning our people to a life of misery and hardship. We must at the centre of our elections campaign put the crisis of the cost of electricity, enough is enough our people cannot go on like this.
Comrades it is a lie that we must dispel now that load shedding has ended in South Africa, it has simply been given another name called load reduction and it is as bad as load shedding. We cannot as leaders of society and as the media participate in a state-sponsored lie that South Africa has recovered from the electricity crisis.
To do so would be to form part of misinformation and the elections strategy of the former liberation movement, which will be based on the lie that they fixed a problem which they created in the first place.
A week does not pass without a blackout of electricity in one community or another in South Africa. The people of Soweto, live a life of darkness while we accept a lie that things have been turned around.
We must champion these struggles, and this plenum must emerge with concrete strategies on how we will rescue communities from darkness.
Comrades the challenges of hunger are destroying our communities. It pains my heart when I hear that children in the Eastern Cape have died of hunger. We must as branches identify families who are in need as it is not African that children can die of hunger while they exist in a community
This must be an adopted program of each and every branch and sub-region of the EFF, and those families must be helped without exposing them or humiliating them for social media
I want to take this opportunity to once again send my deepest condolences to the families who lost their children in that tragic accident of scholar transport in the Vaal. My heart bleeds for those families who had to recover the bodies of their children after such a horrific accident.
We must outlaw informal scholar transport and push for state-owned scholar transport in all municipalities. A bakkie and a van is not scholar transport, and those who drive children on our roads to school must be vetted and registered with the Department of Basic Education, to avoid irresponsible people being custodians of the lives of children.
Commissars and Fighters, the hunger of our people is unbearable, and it is due to a struggling economy and joblessness. All industries in our country are on a downward spiral, and we are rapidly de-industrializing as a nation.
Our failure to industrialise and build manufacturing capacity is why we are so easily blackmailed by nations such as the USA, because there is no internal capacity to survive and trade amongst ourselves in the continent.
Everyday we are told of retrenchments in massive industry such as the steel and automotive industry, and this GNU has no strategy or plan to reverse the decline. We will never defeat poverty if we do not build industries, because industries are jobs.
The elections manifesto of the EFF must speak to strategies to localise development and industry snd this plenum through commissions must provide such guidance.
Commissars and Fighters, the people of South Africa are held hostage and are at the mercy of criminals. Week after week we witness mass shootings in the City of Cape Town which is led by the DA, and there is no solution to that crisis.
The former Mayor of Cape Town Helen Zille who leads the DA today wants to be the Mayor of Johannesburg, leaving behind the dead bodies in Cape Town where the DA has failed the poorest of the poor.
The first question Helen Zille must be asked is what is her party doing about crime in the City of Cape Town, that now she thinks she is worthy of leading the City of Joburg?
As the EFF we need to stand up against criminals and take them toe to toe in defence of our communities. The EFF continues to lead the fight against crime in Parliament by making progressive proposals to strengthen law enforcement and investigate the root cause of this crisis.
This fight must be taken up by our councillors in communities; we must establish EFF led community protection programs and apprehend criminals. You are not a revolutionary if you know the house of a drug dealer or a rapist in your community, yet you sit and do nothing.
The time to accept that criminals can stay among us must come to an end. Stand up South Africans, stand up fighters and chase away drug dealers, chase away women abusers and chase away gangsters in your community.
It is on that note that I wish to commend the EFF Youth Command, which through its Sizofunda Ngenkani Campaign also launched an initiative to get those who sell admission in institutions of higher learning arrested. The Youth Command must never retreat or be intimidated by criminals who take advantage of the desperation of our people who are trying to get an education.
The Youth Command will play an important role in the coming Local Government Elections and must begin to build solid and verifiable elections structures that will mobilise young people in all spheres of society.
On Organisational Building and Local Government Elections
Commissars and Fighters as an organisation we find ourselves at a moment of where we either thrive or we perish.
We have built sub-regional structures in an effort to take our organisation back to the people and our primary focus should be direct interaction with each and every South African voter in order to convince them of the ideas of the EFF.
We must Commissars and Fighters ensure that sub-regional structures meet regularly, and standing agenda items ought to be service delivery programs and elections.
We must ensure that our branches meet regularly and councillors must convene community meetings to engage society and fix the problems confronting them. This is mandatory and any councillor who fails to convene community meetings and resolve everyday challenges confronting our people will face harsh consequences.
All Sub-Regional Command Teams must embark on a verification of all the voting district elections task forces (VDETF’s) and establish street volunteers in each and every ward and each and every street.
The work of elections begins today, and we must know how many soldiers we have for the war to come
There must be zero tolerance for anyone who misleads the organization and provides information to manipulate the leadership into thinking we have volunteers in instances where we do not. Leadership is discipline and honesty, and dishonesty is tantamount to treason in the revolution.
Fellow Fighters this will be a testing period which will demand utmost discipline from all of us. There will be no tolerance for laziness and ill-discipline, there will be no tolerance for people who are given tasks and do not fulfil them.
Each and everyone of you seated here must be able to take individual and collective responsibility for the work of the organization and this includes fundraising and organizing resources for elections.
Commissars and Fighters the time for unity in the organization is now. There is no room for division and factionalism and you must know that if you partake in such, then you are an infiltration which is sent to destroy the EFF.
Remove envy of one another, resist the temptation of undermining others and leading alone without consulting the collective. Respect your leadership and know that in the EFF the party leads government and not the other way round.
Fellow Fighters, we need to ensure that we promote the organization above everything else, and as our constitution guides us avoid taking personal glory for the work of the collective.
As we enter this phase of elections which will be characterised by Mayoral candidates, let us choose the best amongst us and rally behind our Mayoral candidates. Let us know our strengths and limitations.
The Mayoral candidate of the EFF will not automatically be a leader of a sub-region, a province or even the CCT, but we will determine who we send while ensuring that we do not weaken the organization in other areas of governance or responsibility.
Let us discuss here in this plenum the calibre of an EFF Mayor, because the days where the EFF supports other organisations to have Mayors have come to an end. We will field Mayors and anyone who wants to negotiate with the EFF must know that the EFF wants Mayorship.
To our MMC’s, it may be time to strap your boots on and head to the ground, because the attitude of the ANC seems to be one of disrespect towards the EFF and it does not look like the ANC appreciates that it does not govern on its own in municipalities and especially in Gauteng.
They think they can treat the EFF like dirt and do as they please with us, especially in Ekurhuleni and very soon they will reap the consequences of their disrespect and disregard for the EFF. Those who are close with them, go and tell them that they will be learning a lesson very soon that the EFF is not to be disrespected.
Way Forward
Fellow Fighters, the past is behind us and the EFF has proven its strength on the ground and across all spheres of government.
In this year of 2026, do not waste your energy on those who have made it their mission to misunderstand you, we must at all times defend the organization- but our primary objective now is to talk to the masses of our people.
We have improved qualitative and now with sub-regional structures in place we are in a position to take over this country municipality by municipality.
It is time that we win municipalities and in this plenum each and every province must make a commitment that you will return from Local Government Elections with at least one municipality. One province, One Municipality!
This is the minimum and where possible like in the North West where the former liberation movement has collapsed, we must go for everything.
The Eastern Cape is one of our primary targets because the people of the Eastern Cape are tired of living a life of indignity. There is an appetite for the EFF in the Eastern Cape and we must capitalise so that we can rescue our people from suffering and humiliation.
The Comrades of Gauteng are in for a massive battle, because the metropolitans of Gauteng are going to be a battle ground in these elections. We want to see the leadership of Gauteng on the streets everyday, servicing our people in all communities including in the coloured community and in the suburbs.
I am informed the IPSOS will be giving a presentation here today, that presentation must be listened to attentively because in the EFF we believe in science. It was IPSOS ahead of the 2024 National Elections which told us that the support of the EFF is increasing amongst the educated and the so-called middle class.
The leadership of Gauteng must listen to that, and stop running away from the suburbs and only campaigning in squatter camps and informal settlements.
The educated people of our country believe in the EFF and support the EFF, stop gatekeeping the EFF from them because you fear competition.
Take the EFF to the people, do not personalise the EFF as if it’s your own property.
To the comrades of Limpopo, especially in the northern areas such as Giyani, Musina, Makhado – you have a lot of work to do there. The results where one political party gets 80% and upwards in those areas must come to an end. Go and fight for the votes there because our people are made to live like animals, but they do not see a political alternative.
To the leadership in KwaZulu-Natal, it is time to fight for your rightful place in that province because the people of KZN are beginning to realise that they made a big mistake in the 2024 Elections. The people of KZN in search for a father figure, voted for people who do not have a clue what they are doing and as a result nothing is changing in KZN for the betterment of the lives of our people.
Do not be scared when we say to you support the MKP to govern in KZN, because that is the will of the voters. The voters must be given that which they voted for and experience the mess they voted for. They must govern so that they do not campaign on a ticket that they were denied a chance to govern when they got the majority vote.
Comrades in Northern Cape, the province is up for grabs, you already dropped them to below 50% in the last elections and they held on to power by guaranteeing our land in Orania in exchange for racist votes. You must humble them again to the point that even when they want to sell the Northern Cape to racists in exchange for political power they will not be able to do so.
In Mpumalanga we must regain our status as the official opposition and where possible we must win municipalities outrightly. We have been strong in Mpumalanga and now it is time for us to govern that province and lead from the front in the same way we have seen in the legislature where the EFF is the real official opposition.
To the Comrades in the Western Cape, the results in 2024 and the 12th Anniversary we held in that province last year is an indicator that the City of Cape Town is up for grabs. We must campaign aggressively especially in the Cape Flats, and no place must be a no-go area for the EFF. I want to encourage the leadership in the Western Cape to invest in the other sub—regions and regions such as the Southern Cape, West Coast and areas such as Overberg and the Cape Winelands. Our voters are there in the farms and in the townships and they are ready to vote for the EFF.
Fighters in the Free State, your mission ought to be to capture Bloemfontein and Metsimaholo. The people of Bloemfontein have been living in sewage for too many years and are readily available to vote for the EFF and you must continue the upward trajectory of votes since the last election.
To the members of the CCT, we are going to deploy you where we think you may add the most value and where maximum impact will be required. We will be campaigning for victory across all municipalities but strategically we must target the metros.
Many criminals have formed political parties out there, for the sole purpose of getting one or two seats and then coming to extort the bigger political parties for strategic positions in municipalities. We must make it impossible for hustlers and criminals to get even a single seat, and we must do so by winning as many votes as possible.
Let us go to the ground Commisar’s and Fighters, let us say goodbye to our families because from today, our time and our lives belong to the EFF. A day must not pass without doing something in service of the EFF and in service of the people.
Go to the ground, clean our communities, open soup kitchens, adopt a school, adopt a family, fix the roads, fix the sewage problems yourselves because you are the Malema’s of your communities.
No one will help our people except for the EFF, let’s unite and defend our movement and advance the struggle of our people towards Economic Freedom in Our Lifetime!
Amandla!
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