Saturday, 21 March 2026

Deputy President of the EFF and the Officials of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF)

Members of the Central Command Team (CCT), the Provincial Command Team of Gauteng and all Sub-Regional Command Teams that are present here today. I extend my revolutionary greetings to you the leaders of the EFF

Most importantly, I extend my greetings to the volunteers of the EFF who are here today, from all the voting districts of wards in Gauteng. We have gathered here today to launch the campaign that belongs to this layer of leadership in the EFF, and that is the layer constituted by the volunteers of the EFF.

Fellow Fighters, the true leaders of the EFF today are found in a VD, not in air- conditioned offices, not in the corridors of power, but in the streets of South Africa doing door to door, servicing our people and registering them to vote.

The true leader of the EFF today, wakes up in the morning with a canvassing sheet, a pen and a red t shirt and convenes community meetings to understand the challenges facing our people and address them head on, before even asking them to vote for the EFF.

Comrades, leadership in the EFF today is not about titles and positions, but it is measured by the value you add to the lives of our people and to the growth of the organization. It is for this reason that we want to say to the people of South Africa that the leaders of the EFF are not found in offices, they are in your township, they are in your villages, and we ask the people of South Africa to open their hearts and their homes to the volunteers of the EFF, because they are there to help.

If you are looking for the EFF, you do not need to find Julius Malema, because your next-door neighbor who is wearing a Red T Shirt, is your Julius Malema. People of South Africa, if you do not have water, if you do not have electricity, if you are being treated unfairly at your workplace, you do not need to come to Winnie Madikizela- Mandela House. Go to your nearest EFF volunteer, because they know that it is their duty to fight your battle and carry your struggle.

The leaders of South Africa today, until election day are the volunteers of the EFF. It is the volunteers of the EFF who will guide us on where to remove illegal dumping sites, on which families to assist with basic needs and which communities require basic services.

An EFF volunteer must be proud to be a servant of both the people and the organization. A volunteer of the EFF must be an upright and disciplined soldier, who is respected in the community, who does not abuse alcohol and substances, and is readily available whenever a community member needs help. I therefore declare to you all Fighters and the People of South Africa that from today onwards, everyday belongs to the volunteers of the EFF.

The volunteers are the Commissars of the Streets of South Africa, and they will delivery total victory of the EFF in the 2026 Local Government Elections, and that victory begins with Voter Registration!

On The Importance Of Voter Registration

Fighters and people of South Africa, the democratic project in South Africa has been under threat since the former liberation movement assumed power in 1994.

Our struggle, which was based on the demand for the return of the land, for equal access to quality education, water, electricity, free housing and healthcare, was sacrificed and compromised so that an elite few can gain political power, while the black majority continued to suffer.

In 1994, our people stood in line to vote for a better future, and 32 – years later, it is still a symbol of being a lesser human being to be black in South Africa. It is 32-years of betrayal for the people of South Africa

Comrades we must not forget that on this day, in 1960, the late struggle icon Robert Sobukwe led the anti-pass campaign, demanding that Africans should have the right to move freely in their land without needing to present documentation to the white Apartheid regime.

Sobukwe alongside brave revolutionaries declared that they will no longer justify their presence in the land of their ancestors, and as a result they were killed in what is now known as the Sharpeville Massacre.

This day is incorrectly referred to as Human Rights Day because the political party that is marching against itself just down the road, wants to white-wash history, because they are ashamed that they as a liberation movement did not lead or take part in the Sharpeville Mass Uprising.

Those brave Africans lost their lives fighting for their right to vote for their own government, in their own land, and so that they could call their souls their own. They died on the battlefield, with hopes that when they win the right to vote and elect those they want to, their vote would result in economic freedom and liberation.

It is for this reason that our people have lost hope in the power of the vote because election after election, their vote, and the dreams of those who died in Sharpeville, has been betrayed. The people of South Africa no longer see value in the power of the vote, because nothing has changed materially in their lives,

It is for this reason that every year, the voter turnout decreases, because those who would ordinarily vote for the former liberation movement have lost hope, and those who have never voted before do not think it is worth it. Fellow Fighters out of 9 million people aged 18 to 29, only 4.4 million were registered to vote in the 2024 National and Provincial Elections.

This is a sign that the youth of this country is not inspired to vote. When this is considered with the trend of low voter turnout it means that slowly but surely, our democracy is becoming illegitimate, because most of the population is no longer participating.

We want to say to those people who have been voting that it is time to choose an alternative, and we want to say to those who lack inspiration and have never voted before, the EFF will never waste your vote.

If you want to know that the EFF will never waste your vote, ask the security guards of the City of Johannesburg, who were insourced due to a motion presented by the EFF in council and now receive higher salary and benefits such as medical aid and pension.

People of South Africa, if you want to see the value of the EFF vote, ask the cleaners in the Ekurhuleni, Tshwane and Nelson Mandela Bay Municipalities, who were insourced because of the work and motions of the EFF

If you want to see the value of a vote for the EFF, go and ask the students in the Universities and TVET colleges, who register every year through the Sizofunda Ngenkani campaign for free.

The value of a vote for the EFF can be confirmed by the residents of Matatiele, who were beneficiaries of an EFF motion in the municipality to write off the debt owed by poor households. The EFF motion was adopted, and the municipal council wrote off the debt.

People of South Africa the value of a vote for the EFF can be proven by the people of Ekuphumleni Old Age Home in Nelson Mandela, whose electricity debt of R3.3 million was scrapped due to an EFF intervention. If you want to see the value of a vote for the EFF, go and ask the people of Bela-Bela who were beneficiaries of an EFF motion to open a clinic in Pinaars Ward 8. The council adopted the EFF motion and opened a clinic.

Comrades and people of South Africa, the value of a vote for the EFF can be proven by the pilots the EFF has produced, it can be seen in the old age homes we have rebuilt and improved, it can be seen in the quality houses we have built for ordinary people even though we are not in government.

If you want to see the value of a vote for the EFF, go to the Western Cape High Court and check your slip when you go to Spar or Shoprite, to see how much you are paying for VAT, because if it was not for the EFF, you would be paying 17% for VAT, instead of 15%.

People of South Africa, the value of a vote for the EFF, can be confirmed with ICASA, who after pressure from the EFF agreed that it is unconstitutional for data to expire, and the fight now must be the implementation of that decision to stop data expiry immediately and not in 2027.

The value of a vote for the EFF can be asked from the former Minister of Higher Education, who had to reverse her decision of making corrupt appointments in SETA’s and resigned, because the EFF refused to allow that to happen.

When the people of Midrand did not have water, the people of Ekurhuleni were proof that a Vote for the EFF is a vote for water, because under the EFF there was never a water crisis in the City of Ekurhuleni.

Here in Johannesburg, the EFF has made being an MMC of Public Safety fashionable, because the EFF in Johannesburg is raiding buildings which are illegally occupied from Hillbrow to Bryanston, and closing shops which sell expired food to our people.

The value of a vote in the hands of the EFF can be seen on the streets of Tshwane which are clean under the leadership of the EFF. Fighters here in the City of Johannesburg, the EFF MMC of Health has showed Ramaphosa that a 24-hour Clinic is possible, and that is the value of the vote when it is given to the EFF – today even Ramaphosa agrees with the EFF that there must be insourcing and there must be 24-hour clinics, which means even Ramaphosa knows the value of the vote when it is in the hands of the EFF

We want to say to the people of South Africa, we want to say to the youth of South Africa, do not give up on democracy due to the failures of the ANC and the incompetence of the DA.

The DA has failed to fight crime in the City of Cape Town and has no right to claim it can fight crime in Johannesburg. The DA has failed to build housing and roads in the townships of Delft, Emfuleni and Lower Crossroads, and cannot claim that it can fix potholes in Johannesburg.

The ANC has failed to provide water to the people of Giyani, it has failed to provide reliable clinics to the people of Umlazi and Nongoma, it has failed to create jobs for the people of Mahikeng, and it has failed to provide clean and reliable supply of water to the people of Seshego.

These parties have failed democracy, but this does not mean we must give up on democracy. It is a deliberate attempt to suppress democracy by these ruling parties when they ensure that people do not go out to vote and that people do not Register to Vote.

If you can see all these campaigns, the EFF is the only political party that is advocating for Voter Registration, because we respect democracy and we love democracy, and anyone who loves democracy would encourage people to Register to Vote in their numbers. It does not matter who you want to vote for, but you must at least Register To Vote and then make your decision on election day.

The DA and the ANC do not want new voters, they want their old voters in the voters roll because they know that a new voter, young voter will never vote for failure and is not loyal to them. As the EFF we are declaring today that this campaign intends to create a new voters roll, and that Voters Roll will deliver total victory for the EFF across all municipalities.

We call on the youth and people of South Africa to Register to Vote and Join the EFF Voters Roll!

The EFF Voters Roll for Cheaper Electricity, The EFF Voters Roll For Reliable Water Supply, The EFF Voters Roll for Roads and Houses, The EFF Voters Roll For 24 Hour Clinics, The EFF Voters Roll to defeat crime and gender-based violence!

Voter Registration As The Mode of Ensuring Service Delivery

Comrades, we have observed all these political parties going around announcing Mayoral candidates, wanting to buy your vote with the faces of individuals rather than outlining what they plan to do to improve the lives of the people

They have not even developed a Manifesto but already they want you to believe in individuals who have a history of failure, and their only solution to the challenges confronting our people is to handover our cities to the private sector and business people

The media is helping these individual candidates to campaign, and is applying pressure on us to field candidates, as if we must all follow the same script as political parties which belong to capital. The question they are not asking is, how can these individuals fix what they have failed to do in the past?

When the leader of the DA says they are going to fix the water crisis in Johannesburg, and says they will do so by giving control of water to the private sector, why do you not ask her then what is the point of voting for the DA, if your solution to every challenge is handing over control to the private sector? The people did not vote for the private sector, they voted for a political party, and handing over control of the functions of the state to the private sector is not plan, it is a lack of responsibility! They do this deliberately, because they want the private sector to take over water maintenance and distribution, in the same way they have done so with electricity, transport and our ports and railway network.

When a white racist from Cape Town, who called the people of the Eastern Cape immigrants for coming to Cape Town, says she is going to fight crime in Johannesburg, why does the media not ask her what has she done to fight crime in the Cape Flats and Mitchell’s Plain?

The people of South Africa are tired of promises from people who have a reputation of failure. The people of South Africa are tired of personalities and want a plan to fix their towns and their cities, not an old white woman who thinks drinking Heineken is a way to seduce black voters.

The DA must be ashamed, that they reduce the black voter to being charmed by drinking Heineken in a tavern and watching Orlando Pirates. Black people already suffer from alcohol abuse, and to reduce the thinking capacity of black voters to them being impressed by a white person drinking Heineken with them, is racism.

The people of Soweto are not fools, and they demand reliable electricity supply, that is what must define an election campaign, not gimmicks and drinking alcohol, but a plan for service delivery.

The EFF is calling on the people of South Africa to Register to Vote so that you can vote for ward candidates in your ward who carry a practical plan to resolve local challenges. A mayoral candidate will not be a holy ghost in every ward, and in these local government elections the EFF promises the people of South Africa the best of the best in ward candidates which will be chosen by you in community meetings.

The EFF ward candidate will resolve the challenges in your ward on behalf of the EFF and not ask the private sector to do that to serve the interests of the private sector is profit. Electricity is too expensive, and Registering To Vote for the EFF means there will no longer any additional cost for electricity imposed by the municipality and we will invest massively in alternative energy methods in every ward including solar, wind and water methods to generate electricity.

A decision to Register To Vote For The EFF, means an end to load-shedding, which is now called load-reduction and is destroying our communities and small businesses.

Registering to Vote for the EFF means major business, industry and mines must pay their municipal rates and not have their debt written off in exchange for bribes. These are high energy and resource users, especially when it comes to electricity and water. We cannot not punish households by increasing the cost of water and electricity to them, while we know who utilizes these resources the most.

There is no company, mine, or major industry player in South Africa which will operate in our wards and in our municipalities without contributing to building and maintaining roads, schools and clinics.

We have long shown the National Treasury of South Africa that because the ANC has failed to create jobs, our municipalities cannot generate revenue by collecting money from residents, so the industries must fill this gap until they create jobs!

Registering to Vote for the EFF means that if a person is registered with SASSA, then automatically they must not be in the municipalities list for households that must pay rates for water, electricity and other municipal services

Registering To Vote for the EFF means that no child will not go to school, because the EFF will build early childhood development centers in every Ward.

People of South Africa, when you Register to Vote for the EFF, you must know that we will expropriate all un-used and hijacked buildings, especially here in Johannesburg and use them for affordable housing and student accommodation A decision to Register to Vote for the EFF, will result in an inspection of the entire water infrastructure of Johannesburg, and all over South Africa to ensure that there is maintenance and rebuilding of water infrastructure to prevent billions of liters of water which is lost to leakages. The water crisis in South Africa is not a natural disaster but is a result of neglect and lack of knowledge on how to build and maintain water infrastructure.

These are the basic solutions we are bringing to you before we even launch our 2026 Local Government Elections Manifesto, because an election campaign must be about getting as many voters to the polls as possible, and it must be about the quality of ideas, not about pretending to love our people in taverns.

The road to victory not only for the EFF, but for all South Africans, begins with voter registration!

On Ad Hoc Committee of Inquiry and Madlanga Commission

Fellow Fighters and People of South Africa, it was the EFF which ensured that the Parliament of South Africa established the Ad Hoc Committee of Inquiry To Investigate the Allegations made by Lt General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi into the capture of law enforcement agencies. For this we have no regrets.

We have been the only political party consistent enough to demand that the political interference which has crippled our law enforcement agencies must be uncovered and those responsible for that must be brought to justice.

To date, we have seen how the Minister of Police was seen as acting inconsistent with the law, by engaging the operational matters of policing and making a suspicious decision to disband the Political Killings Task Team (PKTT), without any mandate and authority to do so. President Cyril Ramaphosa has admitted that he had no knowledge of the disbandment and that it was not a decision to be made by Senzo Mchunu, yet he refuses to fire Mchunu because they belong to the same ANC-faction. There are even more revelations that Mchunu coerced criminals in jail to write affidavits denying that they know him, which he brought to the Ad Hoc Committee as part and parcel of what seems like an agenda to lie about his associations under oath.

The EFF will continue to form an integral part of the Ad Hoc Committee as it finalizes its recommendations and at the top of those recommendations must be the removal of Senzo Mchunu as a Minister of Police, and the recovering of the money used by the state to pay him while he was on special leave. Taxpayers’ money is being used on Senzo Mchunu who is going around doing prayer tours to mobilize sympathy in South Africa

We want to say to Senzo Mchunu you cannot pray away your sins of corruption; you cannot pray away your decision of the New Years Eve to compromise our justice system; the EFF will never stop until you are held accountable.

Fellow Fighters we wish to state categorically that we will continue to support the work of the Madlanga Commission and are following all testimony closely. You must never be shaken by witnesses whose testimony is fundraised to somewhere somehow, implicate the EFF, where we cannot be located.

This is an old strategy, because in their minds, the ANC and the DA have been implicated, and the EFF must also be found somewhere, so that they can run a smear campaign. The EFF is nowhere to be found in the collapse of any department of law enforcement in South Africa

The EFF does not control any provincial or national department of SAPS, unlike the ANC. The EFF does not control any department of finance or supply chain management in any national or municipal department which has been mentioned in the Madlanga Commission or the Ad Hoc Committee of Inquiry

They are fundraising a way to include the EFF and they are failing dismally. There has not been any link with any EFF leader involved in any wrongdoing and trust me if there was any such evidence the names would have been out there already. In the Madlanga Commision, they named an Action SA MMC, by name, but they cannot do the same with the EFF, they are just using our name in vain and trying to include us.

The members of the media must say to us, who in the EFF was seen exchanging text messages with a police general or someone who controls tenders or supply management in the evidence before the Madlanga Commission and the Ad Hoc Committee of Inquiry? Ke mabare bare!

The EFF will never be shaken by a smear campaign, of people who whenever they are bored, they talk about the EFF on their phones to extort one another, the EFF is not part of that, and even those who mention us use speculation, but there is not a shred of evidence. If criminals are lying to each other, in order to extort one another using or names, where do we enter? The Commission must call those who used our names to intimidate others so that they can secure tenders and arrest them!

Comrades, it is not a crime in South Africa to meet and engage with Police Generals, and even Lt General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi said it himself that it was normal for him to meet me, to discuss political issues regarding event organizing and rallies.

It was the EFF who called out Lt General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi who threatened violence against the EFF ahead of the 2023 National Shutdown, and this is the type of relationship we have with police. We engage with them, and where they are right, we support them, and where they are wrong, we call them out.

The crime begins when you try and influence police to commit crime and commit crime to serve your interests. The crime begins when you use your political power to undermine investigations and work of police officers, and in order to benefit criminal syndicate and drug cartels. The EFF is nowhere to be found at that table, and accused number one is the ANC.

It is the ANC which has factionalized our police and intelligence services according to who emerges at their elective conferences. It is the ANC appointed generals who have been engaged in municipal tenders in these municipalities, and it is the ANC Minister who dissolved the PKTT and enabled criminal syndicates to do as they please in our country.

The ANC is not only in the pockets of the syndicates, but they are also themselves a syndicate!

On International Affairs

Compatriots, as much as we are launching our Voter Registration Campaign, it would be irresponsible of us to speak on this platform and not attend to the ongoing crisis happening internationally,

We have warned many times that the USA is led by a violent imperialist, who has ambitions to control the world through force, and his ambitions are the same ambitions which used to be held by Adolf Hiltler.

The white supremacist who sits at the Oval Office in the White House, is a blood thirsty war monger, and a threat to global peace and stability, and his recent war in Iran has thrown the world economy into uncertainty.

Iran has rightfully exercised the right to defend itself, and the USA is now involved in a war that it does not know how to get out of, as all off their senior intelligence operatives and Chiefs turn their back on Trump and expose that Iran posed no threat to the USA and was not engaged in the development of nuclear weapons.

The true reason the USA went to war with Iran is that they are in the pocket of Israel. Israel controls the USA, and anyone who is opposed to Apartheid-Israel is confronted by the Israel lapdog called the USA and Donald Trump. It is for this reason that our relationship with the USA will never be fixed, as along as South Africa is opposed to Apartheid Israel and supports the cause of the Palestinian people

The people of Palestine have been subjected to a genocide by Israel, a genocide funded by the USA, and we thank all the countries which have joined South Africa’s case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to stand against Israel and its genocide. People of the World, we commend you for refusing to join Donald Trump’s war in Iran, and he must take full and sole responsibility for the war crimes he has committed, including bombing a girl’s school, killing 168 children. For this alone, Donald Trump deserves to rot in jail.

He has not stopped there, it is Donald Trump who has kidnapped the President of Venezuela and his wife, so that he can steal the oil of Venezuela and give it to the oil companies who funded his campaign to be the President of the USA. The EFF calls for the release of President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, he is not a fugitive, he is a President who was abducted by the friend of Epstein, Donald Trump, and we want to know whether President Maduro is still alive!

Fighters, it is Donald Trump who bombed civilians in villages in Nigeria, under the lie that he is fighting religious terrorists, because he is looking for a reason to invade Nigeria and steal its oil resources. It is Donald Trump who is currently engaged in an inhumane blockade on Cuba, because he is ashamed that the country of Commandante Fidel Castro has survived so long as a communist country.

The people of Cuba need the support of the world, in the same way they have supported us in our fight against colonialism and Apartheid, and in the same way they have given the world Doctors and medical training even when they did not agree with some countries ideologically. We call on the world to send aid to the people of Cuba, who are being punished for refusing to bow to US-imperialism.

Comrades, Donald Trump is a threat to us all, and he must not be ignored even here in South Africa, where he tried to manufacture a lie that there is a white genocide. He has now sent a racist ambassador who is meeting right-wingers before he even meets the President of the Republic of South Africa, because they do not respect our sovereignty.

I want to warn you now, and this includes the IEC, the USA has an interest in the local government elections of South Africa, and they will do anything in their power to manipulate these elections to ensure that political parties they support, emerge victorious. In this election, we are fighting against US-imperialism, and we must unite especially as the left to defend our country from total capture by the USA.

A country that kidnaps Presidents, a country that bombs school children and a country that threatens teams that qualified for the World Cup like how Iran has been threatened does not deserve to host the World Cup. We therefore reiterate our call for a boycott of the FIFA World Cup if it will be hosted in the USA.

South Africa’s National Team, which worked hard to qualify, and we congratulate them, must lead this boycott, because even our freedom from Apartheid was secured through methods of protest such as sporting boycotts.

Comrades, the decision by CAF to strip the Senegal National Team of the AFCON and hand it over to Morrocco two-months later is a disgrace and must be rejected. It is a boardroom deal that undermines the spirit of football, because even when Senegal walked off in protest, the referee did not determine that they had forfeited the match and allowed play to continue.

Morrocco participated in the match, missed a penalty and conceded a goal which led to Senegal lifting the trophy, and the negotiations behind closed doors to now award the trophy to Morrocco are a sign of corruption we did not expect to see under the Presidency of Patrice Motsepe.

This shows that the influence of Morrocco over African football needs to be stopped, because they use money in sports and in politics, to lobby support for themselves and their continued colonial occupation of the Western Sahara. We recognize the Western Sahara’s right to self-determination, and we recognize Senegal as Champions of Africa, and no one else.

On EFF CCT and Public Representatives Deployment to Home Sub-Regions

Fellow Fighters we have taken a decision to deploy all Members of the CCT, Parliament, Provincial Legislature and Municipal Councils to their sub-regions they call home and to their wards. This decision was taken deliberately so that after the 2026 Local Government Elections each and every leader and public representative must account on the results of their own ward and on the results of the sub-region they were deployed to.

The days where leaders from the EFF come from wards which are not led by the EFF are over as of today. If you want to lead the EFF, you must begin by leading the community where you come from, you cannot claim to be a national leader and yet locally the people of your own community do not believe in you.

Victory starts at home, and everyone must go home and bring back Victory to this building behind me called Winnie Madikizela Mandela House.

There is no leader of the EFF who is going to be a VIP in these elections. We want to say to the ground forces and volunteers of the EFF that any leader who comes to your ward and sub-region to sit under a gazebo, or to sit in their car and take pictures and then leave, you must report such leaders to the Secretary General so we can process them.

Any leader who comes and does not contribute by buying food for volunteers and looking after volunteers by helping the community get service delivery, you must ask that leader to leave and you must lead yourselves as volunteers, because it is better to lead yourselves than to believe that you have leadership that is not helpful.

Any leader who tries to lead you through a WhatsApp group and phone calls, and does not have the respect for volunteers to go to deployment and convene meetings where there is reporting directly from volunteers – you must leave that WhatsApp group and report to the Secretary General that there is a leader deployed to your sub-region who is undermining the work of the EFF, and leading through a cellphone.

Fighters, any public representative who refuses to do organizational work because they say they are busy in council or in the legislature or in Parliament, you must report that person. What informs your work in council or in Parliament if you are never on the ground engaging in organizational work and with communities? Governance work is informed by community work, and governance must never be an excuse to neglect our organization and ordinary people.

Any leader who convenes internal meetings of the EFF on weekends, meaning on Friday to Sunday, you must report such a leader because they are involved in the sabotage of the EFF. Weekends are for service delivery, weekends are for door to door, weekends are for voter registration.

Let us all commit ourselves to a principled campaign and victory in the 2026 Local Government Elections, as the alternative is the continued suffering and poverty of our people

Amandla!