EFF leader Julius Malema has once again reiterated that any of his detractors who thought that he was a dictator and divisive should leave the party.
Malema was answering questions from the media on Monday during the party’s walkabout at Nasrec, the venue for its elective conference in December.
Attacking his detractors, he asked why individuals would join a party that was created by a dictator.
“Why did you join a divisive party? Why did you join?” Malema asked.
“I was accused of being a dictator since my days in the ANC Youth League... so there is nothing new.”
He added that the party was not going to waste time nursing people’s feelings.
“If you want to leave, the door is open. Leave now! We are not begging anyone,” he said.
The walkabout comes as the party faces the most daunting challenge after some of its senior members quit to join the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP), recently.
First to leave was its deputy president, Floyd Shivambu, who was followed by the likes of Advocate Dali Mpofu.
Speculation is rife that party MP Mbuyiseni Ndlozi would also be following suit after he was allegedly sidelined by Malema from contesting the elective conference.
Addressing the matter, Malema launched an attack on the media after a question about Ndlozi was posed.
“I have never said anything about Ndlozi... don’t come here with your shebeen gossip and toilet talk. There is no such thing,” Malema said.
Malema also took a swipe at MKP leader, Jacob Zuma. “I’m not a pushover; no one can push me around.
“President Zuma and I are very good... but that doesn’t mean I must agree with him,” he said.
He also referred to Zuma during the EFF’s Gauteng Provincial General Assembly (PGA) over the weekend.
“Comrades, we are going to fight corruption during Zuma, even after Zuma. Zuma is corrupt.
“We were not misled about the corruption of Zuma. Cyril Ramaphosa is corrupt.
“We are not misled about the corruption of Cyril Ramaphosa.”
Explaining the party’s poor performance in KwaZulu-Natal in the May elections, Malema said a glaring example of infiltration was the planned organisational collapse in the province.
“We are even being kind by saying that the person (Shivambu) who was deployed to KZN for elections was divorced from reality in KZN.
“It may even be true, and more worrying, that he was aware of the damage to come in KZN and kept quiet because he had already chosen to betray this movement,” he said.
Malema added that senior leaders who left the party did not only lead the “infiltration and betrayal” but wanted them to respond or act favourably to their infiltration. Malema also alleged that Shivambu pressured him, eager to secure a position in the Government of National Unity (GNU).
“We look back just a few months ago, as the leadership standing in front of you today, were put under immense pressure by those who have left us behind, to write petitions to the ANC and ostensibly the GNU for inclusion in their compromised government, which is led by the descendants of settler colonialists and white supremacists.
“We were pressured to do so because there was a strong desire for positions, at the expense of our principles of anti-racism and the return of the land,” he said.
Cape Times