TWO OF THE biggest party detractors from the governing ANC plan to meet after the May 29 elections to discuss the possibility of forming a coalition.
EFF president Julius Malema confirmed the possibility of teaming up with the newly formed uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP), led by former president Jacob Zuma, while addressing the coloured community at Don Mateman Hall in Eldorado Park this week.
The Red Berets leader told the packed hall that he would be meeting with Zuma to discuss their possible alliance after the polls.
Malema had spoken pleasantly about his former nemesis since the start of the election campaign, sending clues that the two parties could link up.
Malema, as the ANC Youth League president at the time, is believed to have been responsible for elevating Zuma into power in 2007 when he beat Thabo Mbeki for the ANC presidency at the party’s elective conference.
Following his win, Zuma became president of the country with Malema as a staunch supporter until their fallout in 2012, which paved the way for Malema to form the EFF.
Zuma announced in December that he would not be campaigning for ANC in the upcoming elections but would be campaigning for the MKP.
The MKP subsequently announced that Zuma was the leader of the party and would be on the ballot paper.
Speaking at the mini manifesto launch in Eldorado Park on Wednesday, Malema boasted that Zuma had tipped him that he would be announcing that he was the MKP leader and a candidate before it was launched.
“We absolutely have no problem with President Zuma doing what he is doing, and we are not far apart from MKP policies. We speak of land, we speak (of) employment of our people, we speak (of) the restoration of the economy.”
Malema said they had supported one another even before the formation of the two parties.
Not so long ago, Malema had the country agog when he visited Zuma in Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal, for tea.
Malema played to the coloured vote and told the crowd in Eldorado Park that they should not make a mistake of voting for Gayton McKenzie’s Patriotic Alliance (PA).
Taking a swipe at McKenzie, Malema said the PA did not have a manifesto and that McKenzie was not a politician.
Malema said it was unfair for the coloured and black communities to be living in old dilapidated buildings, adding that it was not true that foreigners were taking jobs from South Africans as investors and ANC corruption were at the centre of the country’s economic woes.
“I am here to say to you, this is my home. I belong here. And to the coloured community, they belong to me and we are one, as nothing can separate us. Your problems are my problem.
“When I fight corruption, when I fight stealing from our government, I am thinking of you. I want your children to be liberated and be part of those communities that are prospering,” he said.
“I do not like this thing that every time we speak of drugs, we think of the coloured community. We need to destroy that.
“When we speak of gangsters, we think of the coloured community and when we speak of unemployment and alcohol, we speak of the coloured community. We need to fight all those social ills in this community...
“Eldorado Park will never be dangerous for me as long as my people are living there,” he said.
MKP spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndhlela was not available for comment.
But the party said previously that it was willing to work with the EFF as the two parties had similar ideals.
Ndhlela said said it would work with all progressive parties. “Those discussions will be based on the outcomes of the elections.”
The Star