Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema has rejected calls for his resignation following the party’s performance in the 2026 local government elections. Speaking at the National Results Operations Centre in Midrand on Saturday, Malema characterized suggestions that he should step down as an attempt to dismantle the party. “I can guarantee you that there must be succession in the EFF. Malema must leave the EFF, maybe the EFF will grow. It’s a call to kill the EFF,” Malema said. “The people who are saying those things are people who don’t love the EFF. They want to kill it. You will not kill the EFF. Kill me first, then the EFF.” Malema attributed the party’s decline in support to what he described as an international smear campaign. He specifically accused the lobby group AfriForum of traveling to the United States to lobby the White House against the EFF. “This is a victory for those who went to the US and told the White House there was a white genocide in South Africa while denouncing the EFF,” he stated, further describing the election results as a “victory for AfriForum” and the “Boeremag.” As of 2:15 p.m. on Saturday, with 98% of the national vote counted, the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) results indicated the EFF had secured 6.25% of the vote and 490 seats. The African National Congress (ANC) led with 30.9%, followed by the Democratic Alliance (DA) at 24.59%. The uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party held 9.61% of the vote with 694 seats. Addressing the party’s standing relative to the MK Party, Malema dismissed the organization as a “regional faction” that operates along “tribal lines.” He maintained that the EFF remains a national organization with a broader footprint. Despite the national decline, Malema highlighted growth at the ward level, noting that the party increased its ward victories from 19 in the previous cycle to 37 in 2026. He cited specific gains in the North West, where the party increased its ward count from three to 10, and in Mpumalanga, where it secured seven wards after winning none in 2021. He also noted the party’s success in taking two wards from the ANC in Marikana. While acknowledging that the party must “confront honestly” the setbacks experienced in the election, Malema insisted that the EFF remains a “well-oiled machine” that is “going nowhere.”
Article source: The Independent Online | Image credit: The Independent Online