leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) Julius Malema fanned the flames of frustration on Thursday when, during a presser, he revealed his party is set to embark on a national shutdown.
Here’s everything we know about the EFF national shutdown
Taking place an hour later than initially scheduled due to Eskom’s rampant loadshedding, the opposition party’s media briefing was a scathe-fest of verbal assaults targeted at African National Congress (ANC) leader and President Cyril Ramaphosa and his administration.
The frail state of Eskom and other state parastatals are just a few of the issues Malema raised. The EFF leader lambasted Ramaphosa as a “puppet of the West”, claiming former president Jacob Zuma’s successor may be on the verge of selling the country to Western powers, such as the United States (UK) and Britain.
in response to the continual deterioration of South Africa’s economy, which has been exacerbated by record-high food and petrol prices, not to mention the escalated rolling blackouts, as well as high levels of crime, the EFF will rally support from opposition parties and civic organisations “to plan and engage a national shutdown which will seek to remove Cyril Ramaphosa from office.”
The EFF national shutdown, Malema further explained, will seek to highlight the following demands:
- An end to loadshedding and the immediate dissolution of the Eskom board and firing of all senior managers, including the CEO and the COO.
- The reduction in the cost of fuel to 2018 prices.
- Introduction of mechanisms to regulate the rise of petrol prices.
- An end to the privatisation of state-owned companies.
- The immediate resignation of Public Enterprise Minister Pravin Gordhan.
- An end to crime and the removal of Police Minister Bheki Cele.
- The introduction of a basic income grant for the poor.
- The immediate arrest of Ramaphosa.
- An end to South Africa’s bilateral relations with the US and UK for interfering in the country’s energy policy and direction.
Malema warned the EFF national shutdown will not be a peaceful protest.
“It will be a shutdown that must communicate to the sitting government that enough is enough. We cannot fold our arms and do nothing when our country is being sold to the dogs.
“The EFF calls on all the people of South Africa to join on the national shutdown to demand our country back from an incompetent, directionless and criminal syndicate that enjoys protection of white monopoly capital and its media,” Malema exclaimed.
The EFF has, at this time, not indicated when exactly the shutdown is set to take place.
This is a developing story.