Africa-Press – South-Africa. The EFF has announced it intends to establish its own labour union.
EFF leader Julius Malema addressed a May Day rally in Middelburg, Mpumalanga, on Sunday.
Malema said the party’s labour desk was often challenged, when it intervened with employers as it was not a labour union.
He added the EFF had a labour desk because it was preparing for a union.
“That union will never sell out. That union will always be on the side of the workers,” Malema said.
“We are preparing to do a union, and not a Mickey Mouse union, who is in cahoots and in bed with the employer.”
He had a go at the ANC’s alliance partner, Cosatu, and pledged the EFF would overtake Cosatu.
According to Malema, South African unions were taking the side of employers, adding this created a vacuum for the workers – a vacuum the EFF intends to fill.
Malema did not provide a timeline for the establishment of the EFF’s union.
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He also called on EFF members not to be friends of the mining companies, as the “EFF must always be on the side of workers”.
“We don’t care of the investor, we don’t care who owns the mine,” Malema said.
He added they only cared whether the mining companies invested in their communities.
Shortly after Malema spoke in Mpumalanga, President Cyril Ramaphosa had to abandon the Royal Bafokeng Stadium in Phokeng, North West, as striking workers from the Sibanye Stillwater mine stormed the stage.
The workers had been singing since the start of the Cosatu May Day event and vowed not to allow any of the leaders to address them. At one time, they could be heard singing: “Cyril must go!”
Workers told the SABC public servants sold them out regarding their raise and their union leaders “drink coffee with Ramaphosa” and forget about their demands.
Malema also came out in strong support of the coal-mining sector and criticised the Ramaphosa administration’s steps to minimise coal-dependency.
“How do you say we can’t mine coal in South Africa? What are we going to eat?” he said.
“The day you close coal mines in Mpumalanga, you should close Mpumalanga.”
He said if any coal mines were closed, the EFF would “open [it] by force”.
In 2019, AmaBhungane reported the EFF and Malema’s personal benefactor, tobacco baron Adriano Mazzotti, was part owner of a mining company, Dithabeng Mining.
In a typically wide-ranging speech, Malema also called for African unity.
“When you see a Zimbabwean, see yourself.”
He also repeated the EFF’s long-held policy position of collective land ownership.
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