Million-vote Malema vows to shut down business in Johannesburg

Julius Malema.

Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema is threatening to shut down business in central Johannesburg when his supporters return to protest against the ban on overalls in the Gauteng legislature.

Speaking from his spacious third-floor office at his party's headquarters in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, Malema said he was now planning a huge protest that would make Tuesday's chaotic march on the legislature look like a Sunday picnic.

In a three-piece designer suit, Malema looked more like a successful chief executive than a rabble-rousing EFF "commander-in-chief". He was certainly more relaxed than when he was criss-crossing South Africa in the election campaign in which he received more than a million votes - despite his party being less than a year old.

As he spoke about preparations for this weekend's anniversary celebration, Malema sounded like a man in charge, boasting about how influential his party had become since entering parliamentary politics. "There is no one who can talk about the politics of the country, including a six-year-old, without talking about the EFF."
But it is the EFF's fight with the Gauteng legislature over the provincial speaker's decision to ban red overalls that was uppermost in his mind.

His plan, he said, was to organise another march - following Tuesday's confrontation - that would be attended by 50000 of the EFF's faithful.
"We will shut down business in this Johannesburg. Once business in Johannesburg is shut down, it means business in the whole of Africa has stopped," said Malema.

The Tuesday protest led to EFF supporters clashing with the police after a sit-in at the legislature. On Malema'sinstructions, a large group of EFF members stormed the legislature, broke the doors and helped themselves to food.
There were reports that some protesters urinated inside the building and others looted shops and vendors. Although Malema condemned the anarchic behaviour of his supporters, he admitted to having instructed his supporters to eat the legislature's food.

"I said they must eat. That is their food. They were guests also, so that is their food. There is nothing wrong with that."
Asked whether he was threatening the kind of violence witnessed in Johannesburg in 2011 when his supporters protested against disciplinary steps taken against him by the ANC, he said: "I'm not threatening violence. If a protest to you is violence, then you don't deserve to be a South African, because protest in South Africa is protected by the constitution. I'm saying to you, 50000 people protesting - logistically it must tell you there won't be business."

The protest against the banning of overalls by Gauteng legislature speaker Ntombi Mekgwe has been criticised by some as a distraction from real issues, but Malema dismissed this. "Why did Nelson Mandela wear the Xhosa attire during his Rivonia trial? He was speaking to the black African community, saying 'I'm part of you. I am going to die for you and I will die a proud African.' He said that through an attire. So we are saying to the working class we are here for you and we will continue to raise your issues."
Malema said he was disappointed that the National Assembly had not been "transformed" from its colonial past.

Although he would not say whether he would stay on in parliament after his party's elective conference later this year, he said the National Assembly had become an important site of struggle.
"That is the most powerful political stage. It gives you an opportunity to question directly the authorities and expose the lies of the authorities through oversight."
His focus is already on the 2016 local government elections, in which he hopes to take over a number of municipalities.

Source- Times