On Monday EFF National Spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi issued a statement condemning the attacks on members of Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF). According to the statement, EFF members were attacked twice during the weekend. The first attack took place on Friday in Zenzele during a public meeting. The second one occurred on Saturday after another meeting in Ekurhuleni.
“On Friday, ANC-linked group of hooligans disrupted an EFF public meeting in Zenzele, West Rand. These blood thirsty hooligans arrived in a group and told fighters that they do not belong in what they refer to as an ANC area. They began to throw stones at attenders of the meeting, leading into a clash where one of them shot two teenagers using live ammunition,” Ndlozi said.
On Saturday, during the opening of the EFF Regional offices, another EFF member was reportedly attacked, poisoned and dumped in a Tembisa River.
This is not the first time that attacks on EFF members are reported. At the beginning of this month, EFF reported that their members were attacked by a mob rented by the Zuma African National Congress(ZANC) ward 119 councillor in Freedom Park, Johannesburg. They claimed that the same mob attacked and seriously injured their members in the same ward at the end of October while they were in the process of establishing a Ward Command Team.
In yesterday’s statement, Ndlozi said they have no doubt that these attacks were politically motivated and blamed the ANC for being silent about this, saying their silence implies that they support political intolerance and violence. “The silence of the ANC, since the first hooligan disruptions at EFF’s conception stages moons ago, is an indirect encouragement of political intolerance and violence,” he said. He then concluded by saying EFF will never bow to such pressures and said “Fighters everywhere must not fear or retreat. Ours is a just course, an idea whose time has come, and these acts are proof of this very fact.”
