The EFF Staff Workers Forum would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Apollo Gopolang Bohosi from the Northern Cape, Tumi Tau also from the Northern Cape, and Celi Nkambule from Mpumalanga for winning their cases at the CCMA. This is after they were unfairly dismissed by EFF led by Julius Malema.
It is important to remember that the EFF has failed to pay UIF and PAYE for its staff workers and we will ensure that they account for this crime.
We would like to applaud the CCMA for being objective and ensuring that the rights of workers are protected against an exploitive leadership that claims to be the vanguard of the working class.
It is also a pleasure to announce that none of the staff workers has lost a case with the CCMA. All other cases are ongoing and we are confident of victory.
We take the victory of the three fighters as a victory for the entire staff workers in EFF. Staff workers must know that they can always count on us for support and they must not fear standing up for their rights.
We call upon the EFF leadership to comply with the law as per the CCMA rullings and pay these three workers their awards with immediate effect.
The EFF must know that the plight of workers shall always be victorious even against a gangster leadership disguised as a vanguard of the working class.
ISSUED BY THE EFF STAFF WORKERS FORUM
Email: [email protected]
Cell: 0767158937
COMPLAINT AGAINST EFF PRESIDENT JULIUS SELLO MALEMA
I am a member of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF). I belong to Thomas Sankara Ward 78 in the Tshwane Region. I am also an additional member of the Branch Command Team (BCT).
I am lodging a complaint regarding the criminally and politically offensive conduct of the President of the EFF, Julius Sello Malema. The nature and content of the allegations that constitute my complaint clearly disclose certain offence(s) as contemplated in the EFF Discipline Code of Conduct.
EFF was conceived by a politics and ideological perspective that locates at its centre the total liberation of the oppressed majority via the realization of its 7 non negotiable cardinal pillars as indicated in both the EFF Constitution and Founding Manifesto. Land expropriation without compensation is the first of the cardinal pillars of the EFF.
The EFF Founding Manifesto and policy document on land elaborates significantly on the meaning and implementation of this cardinal pillar number one. We have in our founding documents exposed the colonial theft of all land and vowed to expropriate all of it without compensation.. We condemned the theft, allocation, denial and use of our land along racial capitalistic lines!
We offered the ruling party our proportion of the national votes so that the constitution of the country could be amended so as to cater for “land expropriation without compensation”.
On Wednesday 22 April 2015 in PAARL Julius Malema engaged the leaders of the white agricultural sector in the Western Cape at a dinner hosted by their forum“Gesprek”. At this event Malema reassured whites that their interests in land are secured and intact and in this way allayed their fears on the issue of “expropriation of land without compensation”.
He told these whites “(a)s long as its a productive farm, we don’t have to interfere with the production on that piece of land.” This is clearly not in line with EFF’s cardinal pillar number one.
He further clarified and reassured the white agricultural sector that,“(w)hen there is part of a land which is not used for agriculture purposes, we would be having a problem. All we are saying is the land must be used. It must not lie idle”. Julius Malema accordingly thus guaranteed unhindered and free ownership, use and enjoyment of land by whites under EFF governance. He further encouraged them not to leave any land idle so as to ensure full ownership (by themselves) of all land. Again this is clearly not in line with EFF’s cardinal pillar number one which is self explanatory.
Malema called on white farmers to empower black people. Firstly, since Malema had already guaranteed them that all their interests in land will be secured as is the case now, it is clear that the interests of blacks in land repossession without compensation were sold out by him to allay white fears. Secondly, our first cardinal pillar is clear “expropriation of land without compensation”. This means that we take our destiny into our own hands and take back our land without compensation to the land thieves!
Malema’s call here is clearly in contravention of cardinal pillar number one.
To add insult to injury our President then does the despicable thing of asking these white farmers to mentor blacks. The EFF Constitution calls for the destruction of white supremacy together with the bourgeoisie and all other exploitative relations and upon its ashes to install a system that responds to the total needs of the people. It intimates that the medium through which white supremacy is to be destroyed is via the realisation of the 7 non negotiable cardinal pillars. How is white supremacy (and in particular whiteness as a system and culture of black oppression) going to be destroyed when Malema calls on whites (who are sustained by white supremacy) to mentor blacks. The call for mentorship of blacks (in relation to land) by whites under a system of white supremacy is a call to sustain the same oppressive system. This call by our president is clearly in conflict with cardinal pillar number one.
Malema went on to say to the members of Gesprek, “(i)f you love this country, you must love its people. Say to them I’m volunteering my services. I’m going to make sure the land is used productively and used to feed the children of this community…We need to protect you. We need to make wine from France very expensive.”
He basically guaranteed that the current racist capitalist relations would remain intact and effectively pleaded for whites to love blacks and to re-assure us that they will use the land productively and feed us. He intimated that an EFF government would also subsidize and protect (white) farmers so as to ensure that they are not disadvantaged by “cheap agricultural imports”.
When against this backdrop Malema subsequently said that “(e)verybody in agriculture will be given tractors and seeds…to allow agriculture to continue” he was clearly not referring to blacks whose rights he had already denied by abandoning the first cardinal principle of “expropriation of all land without compensation”. Moreover when Malema asks these white captains of agriculture to “(t)ransfer that skills so we can double production in agriculture…and create some opportunities for previously disadvantaged people of South Africa,” it is a plea to no end since he already vowed not to upset the current racist capitalist relations in relation to productive land.
As a member of the EFF it is my right to defend the party’s cardinal pillars and in this case I rise in defence of cardinal pillar number one.
I submit that EFF in not a poor party as it receives about R70 million from the people of this country via the IEC and parliament annually. Irrespective of the financial status of the organization there is no need for julius Malema, as the leader of the EFF, to plead with land thieves for money in exchange for the birthright of blacks. .
Julius Malema’s offer to the white farmers was in effect a relinquishment of the right to productive land of the black majority (whose interests the EFF has pledged to realize and protect) in exchange for donations and for non productive land.
The promise of Julius Malema to the white agricultural sector to expropriate only “non-productive” land serves to protect white farmers against EFF’s committment for land repossession via occupations so as to correct the original colonial land theft.
As a result of his conduct as indicated above Julius Malema, as President of EFF, has contravened sections 1.1.1; 1.1.2; 1.1.3; 1.1.11, and; 1.1.15 the of the EFF Discipline Code of Conduct which provide as follows:
“1. No EFF member shall commit or participate in conduct, including utterances, which amounts to:
1.1. bringing the organisation into disrepute;
1.2. a breach of the EFF Constitution, its policies and principles;
1.3. abuse of power or office;
1.11. defining himself or herself outside the organisational structures and discipline;
1.15. undermining the integrity and impeding the organisational programmes of the EFF”
I am hereby charging Julius Malema in his capacity as aforesaid for contravening the above provisions of the EFF Discipline Code of Conduct and I ask that he be subjected to a disciplinary hearing without delay.
Yours In The Struggle For Economic Freedom In Our Lifetime,
EFF leader Julius Malema has watered down the principle of expropriation without compensation, writes Andile Mngxitama.
Last month, EFF leader Julius Malema abandoned the party’s radical demand for land expropriation without compensation. He opted instead for the amorphous reformist demand of expropriation of “non-productive land”.
The EFF stands on seven “non-negotiable” cardinal pillars, with land expropriation being at the top of the list.
The EFF founding manifesto is clear that land redress cannot be done piecemeal.
The manifesto is emphatic that all land will be expropriated without compensation. What happened here?
The EFF policy document on land is even more strident. It starts off by asking: “What shall we do with the land once it has been reclaimed?”
The document answers itself plainly: “There is a need to place the question squarely: land must be returned because it belongs to black people!” That’s the first principle.
What we would do with the land is none of the business of the land thieves. We want it back because it’s ours. The EFF’s main claim for land is based on the anticolonial logic that all land in South Africa is stolen property.
This logic goes as far as positing that the whole racist organisation of society, which ensures that blacks live in townships, in squatter camps and are landless while whites live in relative security, owning land and the economy, is a direct result of land dispossession.
We would do well to remember that when the EFF arrived in Parliament, it agitated robustly against “land thieves”. Furthermore, the ruling party was offered the EFF’s 6 percent of the national vote to amend the constitution to effect “land expropriation without compensation”.
Malema’s first gesturing towards reformism and the watering down of the land demand was made in his closing remarks at the EFF elective conference in December. He introduced the strange concept of “unoccupied land”.
As usual no one asked what that meant. All land is illegally occupied by dint of colonialism and the racist legal framework.
Faced with a roomful of the Stellenbosch white agricultural capitalist class, those whom the EFF calls land thieves, Malema finally abandoned the first EFF non-negotiable cardinal pillar and assured the white farmers that, as long “as it’s a productive farm, we don’t have to interfere with the production on that piece of land”.
He told them that when there is a part of the land “which is not used for agriculture purposes, we would be having a problem. All we are saying is the land must be used. It must not lie idle.”
Historical redress was replaced by concerns for productivity. Justice was replaced by colonial economics. In effect, the status quo was confirmed and a gradualist approach to land redress introduced.
These guarantees for white landowners diminish the urgency of addressing the land question radically. Instead, the EFF has adopted the ANC tempo, which has failed dismally to deliver land.
Underlying this compromise on the demand for land is the apartheid logic that if land is redistributed to blacks then people will experience food insecurity.
One wishes that the leader of the party had read his own party policies. Had he done so he would have known that a backlash from white landowners and global forces was anticipated, but would not be accommodated as this would be a surrender in the battle for decolonisation.
In Marxist parlance, it can be said that Malema abandoned any notion of socialist transformation, to maintain capitalist agricultural relations. He replaced radical transformation with the inclusion of blacks as farmers into the system.
In other words, he settled for a mere deracialisation of agricultural capitalism instead of agitating for its obliteration. To drive the point home, Malema asked white farmers to “mentor” new black farmers.
Here we see the admiration of the exploitative, violent, racist and environmentally unfriendly agricultural paradigm that puts profits before the people who drive the sector.
One has to ask what kind of mentoring we can expect from white farmers who make profits out of exploitation and produce for the global market using the most harmful chemicals.
Did we not see a violent protest by farmworkers in the Cape Winelands, which preceded the Marikana massacre? We see that, just like the mining sector, whose Cyril Ramaphosas are mentored by its white captains, Malema is asking for this for the agricultural sector.
The address to the white farmers was in effect a salesman’s pitch. In classical salesman style, Malema stroked his racist landed audience’s ego, in effect saying: “We admire you, you feed us, you mentor us, your land is safe, we would interfere only with that which you don’t want or use.”
In other words, he was saying: “Give us the rejected land.”
The sales pitch reached its apex with a plea, cap in hand – as Ian Du Toit of the Gesprek Forum, which invited Malema, told Cape Talk radio the day after his address. Du Toit reported that the EFF leaders ended their talk by asking for donations from the gathered landed settler oligarchy of Stellenbosch.
For their part the farmers were so impressed and so reassured that “many clamoured to have photographs taken with Malema”. Brilliant by any account.
The sting of this whole operation is that a leader who has massive financial problems of his own is seen here trading off one of the principles of his party in exchange for financial donations from the principal enemies of his party programme.
This is a betrayal of the vision of the EFF, which gave so many of us hope and courage. The militancy of the EFF’s demands and uncompromising stance revived hope in many.
The landless and poor believed the EFF was a party that would stand with them against the moneyed and powerful.
But, alas, this dream is fast turning into another nightmare.
The quick transition from expropriation of all land to “unoccupied” then “non-productive” land has had the effect of protecting white farmers. De facto fighters on the ground have been encouraged to occupy unoccupied municipality land to build shacks, thereby not interfering with white-owned land.
We saw in wealthy Ballito in KwaZulu-Natal how EFF members made a hasty retreat as soon as a farmer showed them his plans for the land. One moment the land was “unoccupied”, the next moment there were plans and the landless had to go home.
This is a strategy of deception. It is not calculated to address the rural or the urban land hunger. Land occupations have become a political football for next year’s local government elections.
The truth is that the ruling party has no programme, desire or courage to address these challenges because it is itself beholden to white capital. The landless are on their own.
In 21 years of democracy, only about 8 percent of the land has been returned. It would take more than 100 years to reach a mere 30 percent.
The principled demand for “land expropriation without compensation” is the only real answer to land redress. This demand must be driven by the truth that in 1652 a group of foreigners from Europe arrived here and used force of arms to take land from Africans.
They didn’t ask if the land was being used productively.
The racist scaremongering that blacks can’t farm must also be laid to rest and cannot be used by a party that claims to be radical, militant and socialist.
The agricultural sector is inefficient and racist and does not contribute to food security.
Our country is a net food importer and the sector contributes less than 5 percent to the gross domestic product while hiring an exploited and abused 700 000 farm workers.
This fundamental policy shift poses the question: Will ordinary members of the EFF defend the party’s cardinal pillars, or will they allow their leader to edit its policies and tailor them as he wishes?
The tragedy of this whole turn of events is that the EFF is not broke.
It gets close to R70 million a year from the Independent Electoral Commission and Parliament. The party does not need to go cap in hand to landowners, beg for money and water down party policies in doing so.
The African revolution has failed because leaders abandon principle for money and comfort. We are facing the prospects of an ugly African malaise in our new revolution.
Land is too important to be turned into a political game for small change from those whose fore-bears stole it from us.
Writer, philosopher and revolutionary Frantz Fanon put it elegantly when he said: “For a colonised people the most essential value, because it’s the most concrete, is first and foremost the land: the land which will bring them bread and, above all, dignity.”
*Mngxitama is a former EFF MP.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
We the concerned members of this Revolutionary Movement, the Economic Freedom Fighters, demand that our leaders account to our people who voted for the EFF! We have seen the following patterns of misconduct with EFF mis-leader’s:
1. Constitution
The Constitution of the EFF is under attack from those who wish to use it as an instrument to fulfill their own selfish needs. At the NPA we watched in disbelief while our constitution was violated, when leaders did everything against our Constitution to elect the leaders they wanted in all positions from Top 6 to the CCT additional members, so they can hold our movement to ransom. The election of the top six as well as the additional members at the NPA was each a blatant act of voting according to the wishes of Malema. We witnessed how Malema’s will became the will of the people and in this regard how it was a case of election by a choir master. We watched too how the voting choices of Malema had his desired consequences. Those members that Malema did not raise his hand for did not make the threshold. It is clear to us that the reason for these underhanded irregularities is that Malema and Shivambu wanted to manipulate the results of the NPA so as to ensure that only loyalists to them were elected to the CCT.
2. Political line
The political line of the EFF is under liquidation. We see open attempts to appropriate Steve Biko, Robert Sobukwe, Thomas Sankara and Chris Hani into bourgeois state power via Julius Malema and Floyd Shavambu in the name of EFF and to this end get our people to consent to an order of things destined to relegate the black liberation project to the periphery. This must be rejected! We cannot concede to our own demise. The politics of EFF (Marxism-Leninism-Fanonism) is against the containment of the liberation project within the anti black colonial project. We call on our members to be loyal to the political line of the EFF NOT to individuals.
3. Purges
Recently we witnessed how Fighters have been purged and expelled from the movement without any charges or proper procedures being followed. All Leaders and Fighters that question procedure in the EFF have been silenced. No one is above the constitution and the political line of the movement, not even Julius Malema. Any disciplinary action taken against any member in this fashion is unconstitutional and therefore a nullity.
4. Cardinal pillars
The non negotiable cardinal pillars of the movement are under attack! Cardinal pillar number 7 speaks of an “open, accountable, corrupt free government and society without fear of victimisation by the state agencies” yet inside the party we see how this pillar number 7 is being dragged through the mud by those who wish to use the EFF as a personal bank account. When informed by this pillar our members tried to hold our leader accountable, we were ridiculed, called names and our very lives were threatened. We see how our leaders have turned themselves into enemies of the people by their blatant disregard and disrespect of this 7th non negotiable pillar. They have used all sorts of threats to instill fear in those who dare to hold them to account! Those who raise their voices continue to be victimized and even silenced via the use of the movement’s resources.
5. Thuggery and hooliganism
Our movement has been turned into a militia gang where fighters are commanded and thugs are hired to physically assault members who disagree with the leadership. We have seen a lack of leadership from those we have given the responsibility to lead. They call upon members to use violence against those who dare to question them. Furthermore this call to violence by leadership is strongly made by leadership during official EFF meetings. No one at those meetings dares to question such backward and reactionary comments mostly for fear of their own safety! As a revolutionary movement our leaders see nothing wrong in promoting black on black violence as long it will ensure their looting of EFF funds continues uninterrupted.
6. Financial Mismanagement
The funds of the EFF have been used for personal things by some of our leaders. President Julius Malema and the Deputy Leader Floyd Shivambu have proclaimed that the EFF belongs to them. Overnight EFF has moved from a movement of the people to a private corporaton. Leadership of EFF have consistently ignored member’s questions concerning the financial affairs of EFF including the misuse of the movement’s credit card. Leadership simply doesn’t answer! Fighters have been constrained to now approach the courts to force leadership to be transparent with their management of party funds. Registering a vehicle in the name of EFF is not a problem! The fact that EFF bought a vehicle which was not registered in its name but was instead registered in the name of a company that has nothing to do with the EFF is scandalous and smacks of theft to say the very least.
7. Land
We have noticed how EFF which grounded it’s land policy on the expropriation of all land has reneged on that issue! It now encourage fighters to occupy “unoccupied” municipal land: we are concerned and convinced that this is a movement away from the radical land redistribution programme that made EFF different and rooted in radical revolutionary politics.The resolution of the land question has been corrupted! Since our NPA, EFF is no longer speaking about white monopoly capital but is now focussing on limited projects that openly avoids harming white interests. The programs for mining and land are now directed at black owned or controlled areas. The call for our people to occupy “unoccupied land” is an insult to the dignity and integrity of our people as it obviously only serves to send our people to go occupy municipality land so as to create more townships and shack settlements. This can’t be central to our struggle. We need to change the land ownership patterns in the country and land occupations is key for this. This can’t be done by building shacks. Julius Malema, Floyd Shivambu and their loyalists post the NPA are not talking anymore about occupying land on farms obviously because its white owned land. What about the land claimants who have not got land restitution in last 20 years? Why are we as EFF not focussing on those land claimants? On mining we now targeting mines of blacks for occupations and blockading. The exploitative practices of black mine owners notwithstanding why are we not focussing on white mine owners who are the biggest and longest beneficiaries of wealth theft.
We say to Julius Malema and Floyd Shivambu stop derailing the movement from its revolutionary path. The EFF is here to fulfill the mandate of our people who voted for it in the interests of the black majority!
