EFF vows to shut JSE down

Correspondent | Wednesday October 28, 2015 16:59

 

Statistics SA figures showed that unemployment rose to 25.5% in the third quarter of the year from 25% in June.

This amounted to 5.4million people without work, up from 5.23 million in June.

The job losses, said economist Dawie Roodt, were an indication that the government's economic policies were not working and a militant labour force was causing companies not to hire or to leave South Africa.

'All it shows is that things are not lekker with this country,' he said.

As economists considered the dire employment statistics, thousands of EFF members marched on key financial institutions in Johannesburg. Led by EFF leader Julius Malema, they marched on the SA Reserve Bank, Chamber of Mines and the Johannesburg stock exchange, demanding the nationalisation of mines, better salaries and an end to retrenchments.

'Failure by these institutions to respond to our demands will lead to [them being] targeted and [their] complete shutdown,' their memorandum read. At the start of the march, the national spokesman for the EFF, Mbuyiseni Ndlozi, said the party was expecting 5000 people, but that number grew as the march progressed, with some estimating the final number to be about 30 000.

Speaking during the march from the CBD to Sandton, Malema accused the ANC of 'being in bed with white monopoly capital' and 'not caring about black people 21 years into democracy'.

Political analysts point out that the ANC continues to shed support. In particular, said political analyst Steven Friedman, it was losing the black middle class to the DA and EFF. 'I don't think it will get them back.'

But, with its large majority, the ANC could afford to lose these voters, while concentrating on its rural electorate, Friedman said.

Ibrahim Fakir, manager of governance institutions and processes at the Electoral Institute for the Sustainability of Democracy in Africa, said the ANC had been losing support since 2004. In the EFF it faced an opposition that had similar policies but which was going after them with greater conviction.

'The ANC needs a more sophisticated response to the EFF,' he said.

In parliament, Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande came out fighting after a week as the target of student unrest nationwide.

He denied he had been inactive, detailing his role to loud jeers from opposition MPs.

Nzimande called for a change to legislation so he could issue regulations to cap fee increases in future. He said Zuma and the state were not in a position to announce a 0% fee increase because it was legally up to universities themselves to decide on increases.

He called for a wealth tax to fund the annual shortfall in the budget if university fees were not increased.

He claimed the ANC was a victim of its own success in admitting so many students to higher education institutions.

DA MP Belinda Bozzoli rubbished this by pointing out that although the student intake had doubled over the last few years, government funding had declined by 30% in real terms.

'You are utilising the suffering of the poor for your own ends. The ANC must take responsibility,' Bozzoli said.

DA leader Mmusi Maimane called for South Africa's contribution to the Brics bank, the additional money for foreign missions and extra VIP security to be poured immediately into higher education.

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