Port Elizabeth - The EFF will not vote with Nelson Mandela Bay Mayor Athol Trollip or the DA on anything, EFF leader Julius Malema said at a packed rally on Wednesday.
"We don’t want Ironman, we want services to the ratepayers of Nelson Mandela. We will use our vote to channel services to our people who are suffering the most," Malema said.
He said the EFF wanted to demonstrate their seriousness about the land issue, which was the first of its seven cardinal pillars.
“We are using Nelson Mandela bay to demonstrate our seriousness about this issue of land. If we punish them in here in order to get the message to them, let it be done. For the land, everything else can be done, for as long as the matter of the land is restored firmly on the table,” Malema said.
He said Trollip was the most appropriate person to be punished for the DA’s opposition to land expropriation without compensation.
“Trollip is the national chairperson of the DA. He was chairing a meeting that took a decision that said they are not going to support the land issue. He must know there are consequences for that,” Malema said.
"As long as we have said Trollip will go, he will go. Trollip will not finish his term. The EFF pronounces on you and you will go. If we fail tomorrow, we will come back. We have taken a decision and we will not retreat.”
Malema says the EFF will not vote with Trollip /DA on anything #EFFRally“we don’t want Ironman, we want services to the rate payers of Nelson Mandela. We will use our vote to channel services to our people who are suffering the most” pic.twitter.com/zjuKSWQBz7
— Raahil Sain (@RaahilSain) March 28, 2018
Earlier this month, the EFF, which helped the DA to gain control of the metro from the ANC after the August 2016 local government elections, filed a motion of no confidence against Trollip.
A meeting of the Nelson Mandela Bay council is set to decide the fate of the fragile DA-led coalition under the leadership of Trollip.
Opposition parties led by the EFF and the ANC have indicated that they would support a bid to oust Trollip at the special council sitting on Thursday.
The EFF needs the support of every other opposition party, including the ANC, to make up the 61-vote majority in the council of 120 seats.
The DA, with its remaining coalition partners the Congress of the People (Cope) and the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP), together have 59 seats, while the ANC has 50, the EFF six, the UDM two and the Patriotic Alliance (PA), African Independent Congress (AIC) and United Front (UF) one each.
Earlier on Wednesday, PA councillor Marlon Daniels said that he was offered the position of mayor by minority parties but declined it because he was not a dog that jumped at a bone.
The offering to Daniels was reportedly made after midnight on Tuesday, by councillors from the EFF, AIC and the UF, who visited Daniels at his home for an urgent meeting.
Daniels has signed the coalition co-governance agreement for the second time following the finalisation of a deal between the DA and PA on Tuesday, with Daniels set to be given the deputy mayor position and that of political head for roads and transport.
The deputy mayor position was previously done away with at council but that decision is set to be rescinded to enable Daniels to be accommodated.
PA leader Gayton McKenzie said in an open letter to the ANC that they would not vote against Trollip purely on the basis that he is white.
Daniels told a press briefing on Wednesday that opposition parties offered him the mayoral position on the condition that he assisted in removing Trollip at the vote of no confidence scheduled to take place on Thursday.
“Just this week it was the very same party who went public and said throw the PA a bone and they’ll jump at it. Last night they came with a big bone and we never jumped. They walked out there with their tail between their legs,” said Daniels.
He said that there was no pact between the EFF and the PA and they would not take instructions from Malema who he called a racist and a dictator.
He said that even with differences, there was respect between the DA and PA, adding that he believed Trollip was sincere in leading the metro.