Outgoing EFF national chairperson Veronica Mente has endorsed Julius Malema for a third term as the EFF gears up to hold its third National People’s Assembly this week.
Speaking to Sunday World, Mente explained that Malema has shown resilience in the face of many challenges, and is therefore the perfect candidate to lead the party. This includes campaigning in local government elections during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
If the branches vote him in, Malema has declared his availability and will maintain his position as the only leader of the red berets since its founding in 2013.
“Until today, he has done well. If we did not have him as a leader after the 2024 elections, maybe we were going to kill each other, because all of us asked what happened in KwaZulu-Natal.
“So, I believe he is a leader who needs to come back and lead the EFF. I do not fault him in anything. I give him flowers for enduring this pain; there was a lot of misinformation regarding the EFF,” she said.
Besides having to deal with a mass exodus of members, including the departure of former party deputy president Floyd Shivambu, following the elections, the party has lost ground, and is no longer the third-largest party in the country.
This has led to the development of a party document that outlines ways in which the EFF can grow its support base and strengthen its branches.
This discussion will take centre stage at the party’s elective conference. The strategy looks at ways in which the party can restructure its wards and membership system.
“There is already a proposal about how we can move from 100 members to 200. It is because 100 members in a ward over time decrease; due to economic reasons, people move around for economic reasons. So, every time we go to by-elections, we look at the membership.
“When you look for these people, you find that 50% are still members of the EFF, and now we must look for new people so that our base is increased, and we maintain a sizeable number of members. We must get rid of regional structures and decentralise the structure of regions to subregions. That means we work much closer to the people. You need to ensure that there is activity in different wards,” said Mente.
Besides this, Mente believes the party must use this assembly to clarify the party’s open
border policy, which has become a big talking point where the red berets are concerned. The party has faced backlash about the policy, which has been seen to be endorsing mass immigration to South Africa.
“On the point of visas, they have become a stumbling block to how we trade freely and what the aspects of trade are. The EFF appreciates that the integration is finding expression even through government.
“We are not all the things that people have been speaking about, saying that people must come to South Africa. Borders are not necessary but there should be controls from one country to another. You cannot come to South Africa without documentation. For us to plan as a country and as a continent, we should know who is where doing what,” she reiterated.
She refers to Shivambu’s departure from the party as a “shock” but she does, however, mention that the party has made peace with the matter.
“Obviously when a person you lead with leaves without having discussed with you what they are going through, and they just drop a bomb, it is quite a shocker. No one thought he would change from the strategic mission that they had recruited people into. It was not sitting well with all of us; we had to respect the decision of the person,” she said.
Around 2, 500 voting delegates will be attending the party’s conference at the Nasrec Expo Centre in Soweto, and the largest delegation will be from Gauteng, followed by North West and Limpopo.
“At least 70% of delegates are women, which the branches have decided for themselves because we have given them 50/50 in terms of selecting delegates, but the branches surprised all of us,” she said.
While it is expected that Malema will be appointed as president, there is tough contestation for the deputy president. Former party secretary-general Godrich Gardee will face off against the party’s head of presidency, Vuyani Pambo.
Mente said she is ready to serve the party in any capacity, even if it is outside of the top six.
