THE EFF STATEMENT ON THE COURT VERDICT IN THE EFF VS WITS COURT CASE

27 August 2015

The Economic Freedom Fighters welcomes ruling of the court that the suspension of students who are members of the EFF branch at Wits University be lifted. We also note that the only reason the judge, according to his statement, could not rule in our favour that our candidates be allowed back in the election process is because he felt they would have been disadvantaged for the loss of time caused by these senseless sanctions by the Vice-Chancellor Adam Habib.

The EFF is vexed by the irresponsible conduct of the Vice Chancellor Adam Habib in the manner he has prejudiced the EFF in the political life of Wits. This man clearly had the intention of sidelining the EFF in the electoral process currently under way.

To this end he has achieved his objective. He has declared himself an enemy of democracy and declared war on the EFF even when we were reaching out to him. His conduct is no different from that of Blade Nzimande who has called for the EFF to be killed. He has also declared himself an enemy of the rights of students to learn. As the judge’s verdict stipulates, the right to learn was trampled on because of his insane and prejudicial behaviour.

On top of that, he goes and solicits the services of the most expensive legal team to defend this criminal attitude against poor black students. He has tarnished the name of Wits which has never had this kind of unfree and unfair electoral history since democracy. We are glad that other academics have distanced themselves from his criminal behaviour. Adam is not a good leader. He is has put the name of Wits University into disrepute and must be removed. The EFF will make sure of it.

We are also vexed by the trend around the country by small groupings in institutions of higher learning to portray the EFF as a violent movement. First it was Adam Habib who, against all evidence, cast a biased view that the EFF instigated violence at Wits. Then yesterday the EFF was attacked at TUT both in the Main Campus and at Soshanguve by SASCO. We are glad that all the claims have been refuted by hard evidence. Female students who are not even members of the EFF were injured by these hooligans.

A female journalist from the Citizen was also hit with a brick by what she says were SASCO members. The EFF is not a violent movement, it is a robust movement. We are not enemies of institutions of higher learning, instead we want all students to learn without fear of prejudice that we see in the likes of Habib. But we must be clear that if we are attacked, we will not hesitate to defend ourselves, by any means necessary.

The ANC and their cohorts in the form of Habib will not derail us. We are resolute. Economic freedom WILL come in our lifetime, and we will decisively confront anyone who stands in the way of that objective. We send a very strong message to all other groupings not temper with our rights and the rights of students.

Adam Habib and Blade Nzimande have declared war on the EFF because they realize we will expose them for their lack leadership in delivering freedom in institutions of higher learning. Universities and Colleges are foundations where students must learn tolerance, not the bigotry that they seeing in their leaders. Neither of these two will stop the EFF. They have neither the backing nor the capacity.

The EFF will study the court outcomes carefully and weigh its options, but it can be said now that we will not let this go by unchallenged. One thing is clear in our minds, Habib must be stopped. He must go!

Statement issued by the Economic Freedom Fighters, August 27 2015