EFF leader Julius Malema has put a number on the table ahead of the local government elections: R4,500 as the floor for social grants, and a doubling of what recipients currently receive.
He made the pitch on Saturday at the party's provincial manifesto launch in eMalahleni, Mpumalanga, where he set out the EFF's priorities for the 4 November municipal poll.
Grants are "your money"
Malema moved early to head off any suggestion that an EFF administration would interfere with SASSA payments, framing grants not as charity but as returned labour.
"They cannot take away your SASSA support grants. You paid taxes when you were working, that is your money. We will not take away your grants, instead, we will double them."
"In fact, we want it to start from R4,500."
Gogos at the centre of the argument
The bulk of his case rested on pensioners — grandmothers specifically — whom he cast as the load-bearing structure of black family life in South Africa.
"There's no one here who can ever say a grandmom never looked after me, they are all the products of grandmothers, that's why the money must go to them because they look after our children. We must support them and fight for them, because fighting for them is fighting for black families, they are the heads of black families."
The logic he offered is that a pension does not stop at the pensioner. Raise it, and the money spreads across everyone in the household who depends on that single payment.
On affordability, Malema's position was that the money already exists — it is simply being misdirected. He alleged public funds are being misappropriated rather than routed to the people who need them.
Nothing for school leavers
He also returned to a familiar EFF theme: young people finishing school and university into a labour market with no room for them.
His demand to government was framed as binary — either put young people into jobs, or pay them an allowance for as long as they remain out of work.
From grants to Phala Phala
Having argued the money is there but badly managed, Malema pivoted to Phala Phala as his illustration.
The matter concerns roughly US$580,000 stolen from President Cyril Ramaphosa's game farm in Limpopo in 2020. Ramaphosa has consistently maintained the cash came from game sales on the property and has denied wrongdoing.
The scandal is back before the Western Cape High Court, where Ramaphosa is applying to have the Section 89 independent panel's report set aside. That panel concluded he had a case to answer on four proposed impeachment charges flowing from the theft.
In the current proceedings, Advocate Kessler Perumalsamy — opposing Ramaphosa's application — argued the cash was concealed in a couch to hide alleged paid work. Judge Mark Sher pressed on the evidentiary gap, asking what proof existed that Ramaphosa hid the money or even knew it had been hidden.
Malema has run the Phala Phala line against Ramaphosa and the ANC for years, and used it again on Saturday to argue the government cannot account properly for public resources.
What was proposed
| Proposal |
Detail
|
|---|---|
| Grant increase | Double current values |
| Minimum grant | R4,500 |
| Priority recipients | Pensioners, particularly grandmothers |
| Youth measure | Jobs, or an allowance while unemployed |
| Stated funding position | Money exists but is being misappropriated |
The context
| Detail |
Information
|
|---|---|
| Speaker | EFF leader Julius Malema |
| Occasion | EFF provincial manifesto launch |
| Location | eMalahleni, Mpumalanga |
| Date | Saturday |
| Election | Local government polls, 4 November |
| Secondary target | Cyril Ramaphosa / Phala Phala |
| Phala Phala amount | About US$580,000, stolen 2020 |
| Current litigation | Western Cape High Court, Section 89 report review |
The proposals land as parties across the spectrum sharpen their messaging in the final stretch before 4 November.
