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Not voting is like committing suicide: Malema

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Give us strength: EFF leaders led by the party president, Julius Malema, motion to the crowd on Sunday - three days before the 2019 elections. Picture: Tebogo Letsie
Give us strength: EFF leaders led by the party president, Julius Malema, motion to the crowd on Sunday - three days before the 2019 elections. Picture: Tebogo Letsie

“Those who are not willing to vote are committing suicide, as by abstaining from the polls they automatically ensure an ANC victory and are basically saying yes to corruption, crime and the same situations of hardships they have been subjected to over the past 25 years.”

Those were the words of EFF leader Julius Malema as he addressed the party’s final rally before Wednesday’s elections.

“I want to say to all who are saying they will not vote because they do not see how their vote will help them: realise that the results are going to be announced with or without your vote,” he said.

He singled out journalists, police officers and university students as he made those statements, imploring them to “vote for the EFF as the party had their interests at heart.”

“A Tiso Blackstar journalist cannot be unsure who to vote for. Under the ANC government you have not been paid for six months and, yet, you say you don’t want to vote. Your white colleagues are paid more than you, and because Tiso Blackstar and the ANC are in bed together they will not do anything for you,” said the EFF leader.

Julius Malema calls for all to vote in the upcoming elections. Picture: Palesa Dlamini/ City Press

He also urged the police to vote for his party come next week’s elections.

“Under the EFF our police and all those in uniform will be paid generously” Malema said, adding that “it is saddening to have our police being bribed or [involved in] unlawful behaviour because they do not earn enough.”

He went on to lament those in the police force who open fire on protesters, calling them “blood-thirsty”.

“I am tired of blood-thirsty black police men opening fire on other black people. If you want to shoot go and shoot real criminals. Not us, the people who are demanding justice. We don’t want blood-thirsty police, if you want to shoot, go to Luthuli House and shoot Ace Magashule. If you want to shoot, go to Parliament and shoot the house which is full of criminals,” he said.

“Police officers, it is like you do not know where the thugs are, come to me I have a list. They are in Luthuli House and in the Union Buildings. Go and arrest the bastards. [Former president Jacob] Zuma is number one, then you must arrest [President Cyril] Ramaphosa for Marikana – he should be in Sun City prison,” said Malema.

These shocking utterances came a few minutes after he had just praised his own supporters for not sparking any violence during the campaign trail “even in the face of provocation by ANC thugs who took down EFF posters.”

He added that the EFF was committed to fighting the plight of workers and the landless, adding that if they were not true to their word then they would have accepted Cabinet positions from Ramaphosa, who, Malema said, has in the past “offered them posts.

May 05.2019. EFF supporters at the partys Tshela T
EFF supporters at the party's Tshela Thupa rally in Orlando stadium in Soweto. Photo: Tebogo Letsie

“Ramaphosa offered me and [deputy EFF president Floyd] Shivambu positions in Cabinet when he started as president, and we said no.”

“Now, I hear stories that the presidency is denying that such a thing ever happened. I never said the presidency promised us, I said ‘Ramaphosa’ specifically,” Malema emphasised. He called on Ramaphosa to answer this claim and not let the Office of the Presidency speak on his behalf.

He added that he was compelled to decline the offer because of his sense of duty.

“We are not in this thing to serve ourselves and families, we are here to serve an African child. If we serve in Cabinet, it will not be through Ramaphosa’s favour but through the EFF’s performance in the elections. We don’t want favours from anyone,” said the EFF leader.

Making his predictions known, Malema said that after the elections the EFF would make it into Cabinet and the party’s red flag would fly high at the Union Buildings in Pretoria.

May 05.2019. EFF supporters at the partys Tshela T
Sea of red as EFF supporters at the party's Tshela Thupa rally in Orlando Stadium show their pride. Photo: Tebogo Letsie

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