Malema declares intention to reward Panyaza for rejecting the DA

Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema announces that his party will support Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi in the provincial legislature.

Speaking in Cape Town on Thursday afternoon, Malema expressed satisfaction with the ANC in Gauteng, led by Lesufi, after the premier shut the Democratic Alliance (DA) out of his provincial executive.

“The province of Gauteng… it has completely rejected the DA and went on to constitute government without them. We are going to make sure that the government of Gauteng works,” said Malema, speaking ahead of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s opening of Parliament address on Thursday evening.

Malema was addressing the media after a meeting of the so-called Progressive Caucus of Parliament, consisting of:

• uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party
• EFF
• African Transformation Movement (ATM)
• National Coloured Congress (NCC)
• United Africans Transformation (UAT)

This grouping has been setup as an antithesis to the 10 government of national unity parties, made up of:

• ANC
• DA
• Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP)
• Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC)
• Patriotic Alliance (PA)
• Freedom Front (FF) Plus
• United Democratic Movement (UDM)
• Al Jama-ah
• Rise Mzansi
• Good party

MALEMA-PANYAZA UNION?

Lesufi snubbed the DA when he named Gauteng members of the executive council (MECs) on 3 July 2024, bucking the trend seen in KwaZulu-Natal Premier Thami Zulu’s group of MECs and Ramaphosa’s ministers and their deputies.

And for keeping the DA out of the provincial Cabinet, Malema is prepared to work with the ANC in the Gauteng legislature and government.

“We’re going to support it [Gauteng government] because not supporting the government of Gauteng is to support the DA. If the Gauteng government fails, the doomsdayers are going to say ‘you see if you don’t work with the DA, you are going to fail’,” said the EFF leader.

However, Malema stressed that the EFF was not in a coalition with the ANC, but would vote with the party on issues based on their merits. He also said this relationship would serve as an example to the ANC’s national executive committee.

“We are not in an alliance with them [the ANC in Gauteng]. We are going to vote for their budget, for whatever is required from us, in order to defeat DA and demonstrate to the national [ANC] leadership that you could have done the same. You don’t need the DA,” said the self-styled commander-in-chief of the Red Berets.