Publications
- The EFF led its nationwide shutdown in various parts of the country with the primary demand to end load shedding and the immediate resignation of President Cyril Ramaphosa.
- EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu called for the JSE to address and implement its demand from a 2015 memorandum for listed companies to provide all their employees with shares and 10 000 scholarships.
- Some protesters have been unemployed for a few years and felt the shutdown was necessary to get the ANC to act urgently.
EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu told supporters President Cyril Ramaphosa is a "white project" that must answer for the Phala Phala saga.
On Monday, Shivambu led the group that began their protest march from Alexandra to Sandton and ending at Megawatt Park.
The EFF embarked on a shutdown demanding an end to load shedding, corruption, and the creation of jobs. It also called for Ramaphosa's immediate resignation.
The group, accompanied by personal security, sang passionately as they danced, chanted, and waved the EFF flag, with five to seven bakkies driving along.
Upon their arrival in Sandton, the group stopped outside the Convention Centre, where Shivambu addressed the crowd and called the president a "white project" who had to answer for Phala Phala.
READ | Malema calls protest 'the most successful shutdown ever in the history of struggle in SA.'
"He's destroying the lives of black people. He is causing high levels of unemployment, of poverty, of suffering, and we are saying that Ramaphosa must resign as soon as possible," he said.
The EFF relocated the peaceful march to outside the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), where even more police and security vans occupied the area.
Outside the JSE, Shivambu said the JSE needed to tell its "" Ramaphosa he "must step down as soon as yesterday".
He listed the EFF's demands based on the memorandum the party handed to the JSE in 2015.
Shivambu called for all the listed companies to provide 10 000 scholarships to students.
"A lot of those demands have still not been met by the JSE. We want to remind them that we have not forgotten."
He added the companies listed on the JSE must also give a portion of their shares to public workers to empower them.
"We had demanded that all the companies that are here must give shares of their companies to workers because we demanded that workers must begin to own these mines and banks and all other sectors."
One of the protesters, Bonga Tshabalala from Thembisa, said he joined the march because he desperately needed a job.
Tshabalala added he had been unemployed for about 10 years and depended on his mother and sister to care for him.
"You know, from these people [EFF], we are going to get something… That is why we are here."
Many of the people present maintained the urgency for the president to resign, the creation of jobs and for the ultimate end to load shedding.
