South Africa's opposition EFF promises radical reforms

South Africa’s second-biggest opposition party, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), has challenged the governance record of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) on Sunday and promised a tougher stance on corruption and economic policies to target racial inequality.

The EFF, formed by former ANC youth leader Julius Malema in 2013, has built its agenda on highlighting state graft and championing radical economic reforms the ANC has avoided, such as mine nationalisation and land expropriation without compensation.

Economic Freedom Fighters President, Julius Malema called on his supporters to unseat the ANC.

“Let us stop these corrupt who steal your money, they don’t give you water, they don’t give you electricity and they haven’t given you roads for the past 25 years. That nonsense will stop on the 8th, we must bring that nonsense to an end.”

Malema told cheering supporters in Soweto that the EFF would grow the economy in favour of black Africans and the youth by doubling child grants, offering free university education and nationalising key industries.

He also said “white people will no longer eat alone, we are coming to sit on the dinner table and if you are refusing us on a dinner table we are going to destroy that dinner table. No one is going to eat until all of us in South Africa eat from the same dinner table. That’s what we are fighting for.”

Though the ANC has won each parliamentary election since the transition from apartheid in 1994, recent opinion polls ahead of elections on May 8 predict that it will lose support to opposition coalitions that have gained ground as the ANC has been dogged by political scandal and a flagging economy.

REUTERS