Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema addresses a press conference at Winnie Mandela house. he has disbanded its Limpopo command council because of its poor performance in the elections. Picture: Timothy Bernard/ African News Agency (ANA)
Pretoria - The EFF has disbanded its Limpopo command council because of its poor performance in last year’s local government elections.
The party, under the leadership of its provincial chairperson Jossey Buthane, lost about 25 council seats in the November elections.
Commander-in-chief Julius Malema, addressing the media at its Winnie Mandela House headquarters in Johannesburg yesterday, said the party took exception to Limpopo’s electoral decline in votes and seats.
“In the last elections they only increased votes by 1 000 which was a sign that they were stuck … and we should have intervened then,” he said.
Malema said the party’s 40-member central command team was the highest decision-making structure between conferences.
“As a result, the central command team resolved to disband the Limpopo provincial command team, all regional command teams, and branch command teams,” Malema said.
He said his organisation would work towards rebuilding all constitutional structures and would recruit members for the provincial conferences.
Former national spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi and co-ordinator of Limpopo Rebecca Mohlala would be deployed in the province as a task team to rebuild the structures. Former party treasurer Leigh-Ann Mathys would be part of the team.
Malema said: “These commissars will immediately take full responsibility for all activities of the EFF in the Limpopo province, and will appoint fighters to form a provincial interim core and regional core to prepare for regional and provincial people’s assembles that will be convened before the end of 2022.”
The EFF said the decision to dissolve the province was made during a plenum meeting at the weekend, when the central command team received a detailed elections report.
“The central command team meeting noted the organisation’s growth in the past elections as the EFF increased its share of the total votes from 8% in 2016 to 10.3% in the 2021 elections.
“The party also welcomed the total council representatives, which increased from 826 in 2016 to 1 066 in the 2021 elections.
“The party acknowledged that the elections occurred under abnormal conditions, made so by the current pandemic. However, despite these challenges, the organisation was satisfied by how fighters led a disciplined and formidable campaign,” he said.
Pretoria News