EFF leader Julius Malema returned to Orlando Stadium, where he once bid farewell to Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, to deliver his final battle cry to thousands in red ahead of the November 4 vote.
“This is Victory or Death,” Malema told 40,000 fighters at what the EFF calls the Mother of All Rallies. “Between victory and death, we choose victory, because we are not a bunch of losers. All we do is win, no matter what.”
The Tshela Thupa rally — literally “pour concrete” — is the EFF’s traditional closing ritual before elections. For the 2026 Local Government Elections, Malema used it to issue operational orders, a political eulogy and a warning to the state.
Malema said the EFF had moved from “celebrity wannabes to real ground forces” after establishing Sub-Regional Command Teams following its 2024 National People’s Assembly.
He claimed every sub-region had met its new voter registration target and had established party agents in every voting district.
“We have party agents in all VDs because we believe this time around, we must protect our votes, which were stolen in previous elections,” he said.
His orders for Monday were military-style:
“Our party agents must be at every voting station before the doors open and must stay until the last ballot is counted and the results slip is signed. We do not trust that our votes will be protected, so we will protect them ourselves.”
“There will be no alcohol and no braai until the work is done.”
Malema turned the rally into a catalogue of municipal collapse — raw sewage in Emfuleni, Sebokeng and Lekwa, cholera deaths in Hammanskraal linked to Rooiwal, dry taps in Giyani despite billions spent, hijacked buildings in Hillbrow where 77 people died in the Marshalltown fire in August 2023, and darkness in Soweto and Gugulethu because streetlights are dead.
“Comrades, our municipalities have been captured by service providers, contractors, corrupt officials and politicians. They have turned local government finances into their personal bank account,” he said.
He argued the collapse is deliberate.
“If a road is built properly, there will be no tender next year to fix the same road. If potholes are fixed properly, there will be no tender to patch them again,” Malema said. “For them, broken infrastructure is not a problem. It is an income.”
He accused officials of driving luxury cars and building mansions on kickbacks, extorting small businesses and demanding sexual favours for jobs.
“The people said jobs are given according to surnames and political affiliations. Councillors seek sexual favours in exchange for jobs and if our young females refuse, they are denied job opportunities,” he said.
In his most explosive claim, Malema seized on revelations this week about State Security Agency interference.
“The revelations this week about the State Security Agency and its operation against the EFF are a confirmation of what we have long known,” he said.
He alleged Project Mayibuye used R12 million of public money to infiltrate 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,” he said.
He linked it to an ongoing plot to hand EFF leadership to Jacob Zuma and the MK Party.
He then congratulated Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva for a historic fourth term last Sunday, drawing a direct parallel.
“Lula’s victory must inspire us. The people of Brazil faced the same forces we face. They faced a right wing funded and encouraged from outside, a right wing that believes their country must be governed in the interests of Washington and not in the interests of the poor.”
Malema declared the Government of National Unity a failure — failing to grow the economy, failing to create jobs, failing to fight crime and now trying to privatise ports, rail and energy.
“The GNU has failed the women of this country. Since July, twelve women have been murdered in Ekurhuleni alone,” he said.
On farm killings, he issued a sharp pivot:
“The chant ‘Kill The Boer, Kill The Farmer’ was never meant in a literal sense. The killings in the farms and of farmers must stop and must stop now,” he said, referencing the mutilation murder in Ventersdorp.
“The continuation of this nonsense feeds into a wrong narrative that there’s white genocide in SA, which is absolute nonsense.”
He ended where he began — at Mama Winnie’s grave.
“The last time I spoke in this stadium it was when we were bidding our last farewell to the mother of the nation. The stone that the builder rejected,” he said. “Your grandchildren gathered at your house last night to report our presence and request your blessings.”
“I have done everything humanly possible and don’t regret being a leader of your campaign,” Malema said. “It is now in your hands, the people of South Africa.”