Malema threatens to shut down SA

SOUTH Africa’s Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party will hold a national shutdown on March 20 to protest continuing electricity loadshedding and call for President Cyril Ramaphosa to resign.

EFF leader Julius Malema made the announcement at a press briefing at the weekend, saying the event would make the Zuma Must Fall protest look like “Micky Mouse”.

EFF Leader Julius Malema

“The national shutdown means that there will be no school, no university, factories and no business will be operating on that day. “All municipalities and all major cities will be shut down and there will be no work on that day. All major roads will be barricaded and all ports of entry, including roads that lead to borders, will be closed…

“No business operations will be opened on that day and no trucks, and no trains will be allowed on the roads and railways, particularly the trucks transporting South Africa’s minerals and coal to outside South Africa through Richards Bay,” Malema said.

He said the streets would only remain open for emergency and essential services. Malema added the shutdown would call for an immediate end to load shedding that was “crippling the economy and returning this country to the dark ages”.

He said: “All sectors and spheres of society are invited to form part of this historic [shutdown].” According to the EFF, the shutdown would also be spurred on by, among other things, the rising cost of living, unemployment and poverty, increasing crime levels, corruption and collapsing infrastructure.

Malema said the party would engage taxi associations to support the shutdown. On that day, the EFF national leadership plans to march to the Union Buildings to hand over their demands. They would communicate the next step on the day if the president does not resign. — News24