On the 27th of October 2015 Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) supporters and members marched from Newtown (Mary Fitzgerald Square) to Sandton (Johannesburg Stock Exchange) to hand over a memorandum of what is demanded by the EFF. Julius Malema, leader of EFF, led the march from Newtown to Sandton and the memorandum was read by the EFF deputy secretary Hlengiwe Hlophe before it was handed over to the Chamber of Mines Head of Employment Relations Motsamai Motlhamme.
Members and supporters of the EFF were marching through streets of Johannesburg singing struggle songs and praising their leader Malema. On their arrival in Sandton, Malema and his supporters where surprised to find the Johannesburg Stock Exchange had closed its premises with barricades, but that didn’t stop them entering the JSE premises. Malema addressed the crowd, before handing over a memorandum of demands to JSE CEO Nicky Newton-King. He said white people were blocking their way, using fences and that they must be ashamed of what they are doing to black people. “We are being treated like visitors in our own country”, he said, and asked police officers why they let the white people to control them. “The JSE cannot lock the gates while they have permission to enter JSE,” said Malema.
The memorandum was read by Deputy President Floyd Shivambu, who said it should be distributed to all companies that are registered with the stock exchange and that the party wants all the companies to give them a response within 30 days. He continued by saying “If they don’t give us (EFF) a response within 30 days we are going to shut down the individual companies on the JSE and also shut down the JSE itself.”
Dorothy Mabelebele is a Community Journalist Activist for Karibu Newspaper at Khanya College. She writes articles about the different struggles that the Black Poor Working Class are facing on a daily basis. The struggles that she writes about is to raise awareness to the communities about issues that are happening around them.
