‘No one will rescue them’: Malema says ANC got support in 2024 through ‘illegal activities’

ANC flag outside Luthuli House. Picture: Michel Bega Months before the local government elections, EFF leader Julius Malema says the ANC’s support will decline dramatically, concluding that no one can help the party get back up on its feet again. He was speaking in a media briefing in Johannesburg this week.

Malema said the ANC in Gauteng was lucky to get 34% of the vote in the last general elections. He said the party was able to achieve this because of Panyaza Lesufi’s creative stunts, such as the Nasi iSpani jobs bonanza. “If it was not for Panyazaengaging in these illegal activities of hiring mapanyapanya and lying to people that they must come and take appointment letters at Orlando stadium and saying people must send CVs at every civic centre at the last minute.

Malema said the party’s secretary-general Fikile Mbalula and even their deputy president Paul Mashatile will not be able to save the party from its inevitable decline. However, Malema said Paul Mashatile is a more sober candidate for the ANC presidency. “Sober in a sense that if you are to go into a coalition with the progressives, he is a kind of a guy that he is willing to listen and engage other partners, not that he will make the ANC to win elections, they will not win the elections.” Malema said history indicates that where the ANC loses elections it does not regain its position back. “The ANC lost the metros in 2016 from there on it has been going on a downward trend.