Amid what can be described as a national drift, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) have once again shown that a revolutionary movement does not collapse under pressure but rises as it draws closer to the people.
It was in that spirit that fighters met for the 4th Central Command Team meeting to close out 2025 by reflecting on and examining the year of the picket lines, which have served as a constant reminder to fighters that ours is a struggle shaped by our ancestors and grounded in the lived pain of our people.
After the 3rd National People’s Assembly, many prematurely concluded that the EFF had reached its limit. They were conspicuous in their hope that organisational restructuring and leadership changes would weaken us, and that electoral setbacks would silence us. But history teaches us that political organisations do not die because opponents wish them away. Organisations die when they distance themselves from the masses, which is why in 2025, the EFF was on the ground and the picket lines.
This has required discipline at all levels, and it is through such discipline that we were able to confront uncomfortable truths. Deployees of the EFF must never behave in a manner that seeks to undermine elected members of the organisation because for us to achieve economic freedom in our lifetime, we must always allow governance to lead, not individuals.
The EFF will continue to demand excellence from its representatives and all fighters and shall never be threatened by the possibility of departures purely because members do not want to face consequences for their actions.
The Year of the Picket Lines was therefore not merely a slogan as it brought us face to face with the people the system has abandoned. The EFF has been found on the ground with the unemployed, the waterless, the homeless, the students trapped by debt and the communities terrorised by crime.
Fighters were there with children who walk to school with no shoes, no food, no dignity, and through campaigns such as Umntana Eskolweni, the country once again saw the true character of the EFF.
We helped thousands of children not because we were chasing votes but because we embody the fact that revolutionaries intervene where humanity is under assault. It was in the small faces of children receiving shoes, uniforms and laptops that we played our role in securing the future of this country and the marginalised children.
On the picket lines, we confronted the structural failures destroying municipal life. Our marches exposed that South Africa’s water crisis is now a national emergency. The Auditor-General’s revelation that 59 municipalities spent R2.32bn on water tankers confirmed that the provision of water was now in the hands of mafias at the expense of proper infrastructure.
The current GNU government is outsourcing its constitutional mandate by forcing our people to drink from water tanks. The EFF has declared that every home must have a tap with clean running water, and we will not retreat from this demand.
But the EFF has never been a personality project. It does not matter what happens to me because those waiting for my downfall will discover that ideas cannot be jailed. Revolutions are not defeated by incarcerating their messengers.
— Julius Malema, EFF leader
The EFF has successfully translated the struggles of the picket lines into the chambers of parliament. Today the country is holding public hearings on statutory rape because of an EFF motion. More than 117,000 girls aged 10–19 gave birth in a single year. This is a stain on our national conscience.
Through our insistence, parliament is now investigating the criminal capture of law enforcement agencies, a process exposing those who have turnt the state into a playground for drug lords and syndicates. We remain the only political party that is untainted throughout these revelations and so we continue to probe without fear or favour.
The daily cries of workers, students and communities are the reasons behind the legislative interventions that have been led by the EFF. These include the Insourcing Bill, nationalising the South African Reserve Bank and cancelling student debt. We are an organisation of practical solutions and not performance and we expect accountability from every EFF member of parliament and every councillor.
We continue to advocate for transformation as the EFF, but the GNU stands in our way as a security blanket for the colonial economic order. Economic growth remains stagnant at 0.5%, and more than 11-million South Africans are jobless. The economy has potential to grow, but the GNU is diligent in protecting an economic architecture that treats the black majority as disposable.
Internationally, the threat of imperialism has taken its most dangerous modern form in the presidency of Donald Trump. South Africa, because of its principled stance on Palestine, now faces diplomatic isolation engineered by Trump. But most disturbing is the silence of nations that once called themselves our allies. If Trump can unilaterally ban South Africa from the G20 and the world shrugs, what does that say about global solidarity?
As South Africa approaches the 2026 local government elections, the EFF confronts a central truth that no movement can transform society while consumed by internal battles. Our communities are not worried about who leads which structure, they want water, safety, jobs and dignity. This is why our focus must always be on the people because internal division remains the greatest weapon our opponents possess, and it is the only weapon they can deploy without lifting a finger.
It is within this context that commentators fixate on January 23 2026, imagining it as the moment the establishment finally neutralises me. They assume that by removing an individual, they can extinguish the only political movement that threatens the economic architecture they are sworn to protect. But the EFF has never been a personality project. It does not matter what happens to me because those waiting for my downfall will discover that ideas cannot be jailed. Revolutions are not defeated by incarcerating their messengers. They are defeated only when the people lose conviction, fighters and the people of this country have never been clearer about the nature of their oppression.
Economic Freedom in Our Lifetime is not an idea that begins or ends with Julius Malema. It is a mission carried by millions who refuse to live as tenants in the land of their birth.
The Year of the Picket Lines reaffirmed this truth. It revealed the EFF as a movement that still knows how to stand where it matters. With workers, students, families, and communities abandoned by the state. It translated public pain into parliamentary action and exposed the failures of municipalities, policing and national governance with discipline and courage. The EFF proved once again that it is present where suffering is present.
As we approach 2026, we are not just going into another election year, we are seizing every opportunity to fight for our people.
We will champion a developmental state over austerity and advocate for sovereignty over privatisation. Our people deserve reindustrialisation and dignity. If the EFF rises united, disciplined and rooted among the people, South Africa will rise with us. We cannot afford to falter because it is future generations that will pay the price.
The mandate of the EFF has always been clear and resolute, and we will always return to our people, restore our movement, and deliver Economic Freedom in Our Lifetime.
Julius Malema is the president of the Economic Freedom Fighters
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.