‘I know the names of people who infiltrated EFF’, Malema tells supporters after SSA claims - News24

EFF president Julius Malema has told party supporters that he knows the names of people allegedly paid by the State Security Agency (SSA) to infiltrate his party.

Speaking at the EFF’s final election rally, the Tshela Thupa, at Orlando Stadium on Saturday, Malema said he had this week received a list of people allegedly linked to the R12 million SSA operation aimed at infiltrating the party.

News24 reported earlier this week that the EFF had been granted partial access to transcripts in the theft-and-fraud case relating to the alleged infiltration of the political organisation.

The publication has closely followed the trial, currently before the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria.

The matter involves Patrick Mshothola and Thulani Dlomo, former members of the SSA’s Chief Directorate for Special Operations, who face charges of theft, fraud, forgery and uttering. The charges relate to the withdrawal of R12 million in cash from the SSA under Project Mayibuye.

On Thursday, the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria granted the EFF access to portions of the trial transcript in which the party is mentioned, including a redacted copy of the indictment.

The alleged infiltration operation took place during a period when the SSA was accused of being used to shield former president Jacob Zuma from sustained opposition by the EFF.

Addressing supporters, Malema said he had received the list of names three days earlier.

“They themselves must speak to their God and reveal themselves, it is not my business to destroy the careers of individuals. I have since put that list in the safe, and I do not want to see it anymore unless they volunteer their own information and tell their own reason why they sold out.”

Malema said the revelations validated what he had long suspected. According to him, the infiltration efforts stemmed from the party’s challenge to what he described as the “capitalist establishment”, corruption and state failure.

He pointed to several moments in the EFF’s history, including its campaign against the Nkandla scandal and its role in the Fees Must Fall movement.

“Remember that when the ANC and the DA had agreed to bury the Nkandla matter and told the nation that it belonged to the previous Parliament, it was the EFF that refused to let it die. We stood in Parliament and demanded that president Zuma pay back the money, and we took that fight all the way to the Constitutional Court, and we won.”

“Remember that when students rose up against financial exclusion, the EFF was at the centre of Fees Must Fall. Our fighters were in the lecture halls, on the streets and in the holding cells. Today, the poor children of this country study for free because the EFF and the students refused to accept that education is a privilege for the rich,” he said.

“That is why the State Security Agency, through Project Mayibuye, used R12 million of public money to infiltrate both the EFF and Fees Must Fall. They planted spies in our ranks. They tried to divide us, to weaken us and to win our members back to the ANC.

“They failed. We defeated them. The EFF remains intact.”

The EFF leadership has arrived and the official program has started. On the stage now is Prophet Raliholela who is praying ahead of the political speeches.@news24#EFFTshelaThuphaRally pic.twitter.com/HERFltzMOc

Malema thanked members and leaders whom he said had been targeted, spied on and falsely accused by SSA agents.

“The organisation you built with your own hands still stands, and it is stronger today than the people who tried to destroy it.”

He also argued that attempts to weaken the EFF had not ended, claiming there had been efforts to collapse the party and place it under the leadership of Zuma and the MK Party.

In 2024, in an interview on the EFF’s podcast, he revealed that advocate Dali Mpofu had presented a proposal at a meeting of opposition parties convened by Zuma ahead of the May 2024 election.

According to Malema, the proposal suggested that EFF should dissolve and regroup under Zuma’s leadership. Malema said he rejected the idea when Mpofu later raised it with him.

Back at Orlando Stadium, Malema said the alleged infiltration strengthened the party’s belief that it had been right to remove those who sympathised with forces seeking to undermine the organisation.

“We were not dealing with personal differences. We were dealing with a long-standing project that sought to destroy the liberation movement in South Africa, and to make sure that no organisation of the poor would ever be strong enough to take power.

“They came for us because they know what we represent. We represent the hope of a people who have been told for too long that they do not deserve better.”

His remarks were met with loud cheers from supporters.

Evidence before the court alleges that former state security minister David Mahlobo instructed the disbursement of the R12 million used for Project Mayibuye, including R160 000 allegedly paid to an official in his ministerial office as part of the operation targeting the EFF.

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