EFF wants to remove Trollip because he’s white

FILE PICTURE: Speaker Jonathan Lawack places the mayoral chain around Athol Trollip’s neck to symbolise his election as mayor.
FILE PICTURE: Speaker Jonathan Lawack places the mayoral chain around Athol Trollip’s neck to symbolise his election as mayor.
Image: Brian Witbooi

EFF leader Julius Malema wants to remove Athol Trollip as the mayor of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro on April 6 because he is white.

“Why not [Herman] Mashaba? Why not Solly [Msimanga] and all of that? Because the mayor of [the] DA in PE (Port Elizabeth) is a white man‚” Malema said.

“Not because Mashaba and Solly will not be touched. They will be touched‚ don’t worry‚ but we are starting with this whiteness.”

Malema was speaking at the Standard Bank Arena in Johannesburg on Sunday at the launch of the party’s election registration campaign.

“We don’t care about white feelings. Trollip deserves nothing from us. We don’t hate white people‚ we just love black people.”

A public spat erupted between the EFF and the DA because of their different stances on expropriation of land without compensation. This issue was recently debated in the National Assembly in Parliament after the ANC decided to expropriate land without compensation at their 54th Congress in December.

President Cyril Ramaphosa announced in his maiden state of the nation address on February 16 that government would accelerate its land redistribution programme.

An EFF-sponsored motion to amend section 25 of the Constitution‚ which deals with property‚ was passed by a majority vote in the National Assembly on February 27.

However‚ because of the DA’s refusal to support the motion‚ the EFF said it would punish the party by helping to remove Trollip as mayor in Nelson Mandela Bay.

Malema said the EFF was not in a relationship or friends with the DA‚ which he described as a “typical bully”.

“We are folding our arms. We have never been friends‚” Malema said

“When we implement that decision (to remove Trollip) it is not because we trust the ANC. We don’t trust the ANC‚ because the ANC and the DA are the same. The other one is racist‚ the other one is corrupt. Same WhatsApp group.”

Malema said no political party could claim ownership of metros where the DA and the EFF were in a coalition‚ because no party had won with an outright majority in any of these metros.

 

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