The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) said they are proving to the nation that they are a non-racial organisation as they contest the ward 107 by-elections in the Cape Metro, with a white candidate.
Cameron Summers from Parklands, who was born in Johannesburg, raised in Durban, and moved to Cape Town eight years ago, will contest the upcoming by-elections under the banner of the EFF, a political party that is perceived as radical left-wing due to its policies such as nationalisation and expropriation of land without compensation.
He said the EFF is the only political party he ever joined as a fully paid member and that the EFF is the only party that puts peoples’ interests front and centre.
"A party that puts the interests of the people first, not corporate profits, or parties that take their mandates from Western leaders," said Summers.
Asked if, as a white male, joining the EFF scared him. He said: "Yes, like most people, at first I didn’t realise that the EFF is non-racial. I believed mainstream media and later realised that the propaganda we are subjected to from birth, at school, extends far beyond United States media and occurs right here in South Africa."
He said on the land issue, the media cuts short at ‘without compensation’ and leaves out the second part, where it says the land is to be redistributed fairly to all people in the country.
"This means if you currently own no land, you will own land in the future, and if you do own land, you will just need to lease it from the state. No personal land or business will be taken away. Big industries like mines and banks will be the real focus for nationalisation," said Summers.
He said he believes that the EFF has the potential to bring change to his community and that he has seen no meaningful material difference in poor people’s lives under the current city council.
"We can become the best ward to live in. People will have access to services that cater to the working class population, which is growing very fast in Parklands, instead of servicing only the well-off. I think when people can decouple themselves from what they have been taught and watch on TV and read online and in the paper, to think critically based on the facts, they will support me. I am fighting for everyone, not just poor people, not just black, coloured Indian, white, or Asian people, but everyone who lives here," said Summers.
EFF Member of Parliament, Nazier Paulsen said the EFF has never been anti-white but rather pro-black because they are the ones who have been historically marginalised in this country and continue to be marginalised.
"We have never said we are anti-white, but rather the attitude of entitlement of some whites who believe by virtue of them being white they are entitled to the resources of this country, while many people remain poor and landless," said Paulsen.