Cape Town - EFF leader Julius Malema has hinted at a shack-up of his party’s caucuses in Parliament, legislatures and councils, saying they would crack the whip on under-performing public representatives.
Speaking at a media briefing following the central command team (CCT) meeting at the weekend, Malema said they noted with concern the unsatisfactory performance of their public representatives in Parliament, Provincial legislatures and municipal councils as their impact on governance was not as impactful as it once was.
“The CCT resolved to hold public representatives accountable for what they do on a daily basis to impact the lives of our people, both in the corridors of government, and in our communities.
“This means we want verifiable reports of schools, clinics, which public representatives have adopted, and informal settlements that they have adopted, reports of in-sourcing motions that they have tabled in their municipal councils, community meetings they held to give reports and take mandates as servants of the people – and we want to see them leading service delivery protests.”
Asked to elaborate on the matter, Malema said there was “elite laziness” on the part of their public representatives, who all get sick notes on the same date.
“We experience some level of deterioration and some bordering on members in certain committees being co-opted and aligned with ministers and as a result not ask a minister a question, not submit a single question about their departments.”
Malema said some of the public representatives may be excused very soon from their responsibilities.
“We are not to harbour laziness,” he said.
“That vibrancy of EFF can no longer be felt in Parliament. This invites us to go and make sure that we crack the whip so that people toe the line. It is not only in Parliament, but also in legislatures and councils.”
Malema said they would not allow public representatives to do their work without scrutiny.
“It is not at a crisis point. It is at the beginning and it must be nipped in the bud so that we don’t have people who exist among us as revolutionaries and activists, only to find we are joined by ANC people who do nothing.”
Cape Times