EFF President Julius Malema announces 2025 as a year dedicated to service delivery, grassroots activism, and empowering young leaders for the 2026 Local Government Elections.
Image: Timothy Bernard / Independent Newspapers
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has launched its EFF Youth Command as a strategic initiative to further consolidate its influence on campuses and empower young leaders within the party.
This move was one of the key resolutions of the 3rd National People’s Assembly (NPA), held in Bela Bela, Limpopo from January 30 to February 2.
The newly established Youth Command will succeed the EFF Students' Command and will play a pivotal role in preparing the next generation of leaders for political action, especially in light of the upcoming 2026 Local Government Elections.
In a media briefing held on Monday, EFF leader Julius Malema declared that 2025 would be the "year of the picket lines”, urging members to focus on service delivery and grassroots activism.
“It is the return to the picket lines that will ensure that the EFF remains a weapon for total liberation in South Africa,'' said Malema.
The move aligns with the party’s broader strategic shift, including the success of the Umntana Eskolweni Campaign. Through this initiative, EFF public representatives visited schools to assist with infrastructure, donate laptops, school shoes, and uniforms, ensuring that financial constraints didn’t prevent any learner from accessing education.
Malema highlighted the importance of the Youth Command’s role, stressing that it was a pivotal move to engage young people more actively in the party's political efforts.
"We therefore call on all structures to heed the call to service our communities towards total and decisive victory in the upcoming 2026 Local Government Elections,” he said.
The assembly included several significant resolutions, one of the most prominent being the dissolution of Regional Command Teams (RCTs) and the EFF Students' Command.
These bodies will be replaced by the new EFF Youth Command, which will allow for stronger leadership and structure within youth movements.
As Malema emphasised that the EFF Students’ Command "will maintain its status in institutions where it won SRC elections” until the Youth Command is formally recognised.
This ensures the EFF's continued presence in student leadership across South Africa, with elections to follow to cement the new structure.
"This is to avoid attempts by enemy forces to nullify the democratic victory of the EFFSC on campuses on the basis of its dissolution. Once their status as the EFF youth command is confirmed, elections will be contested with the status of the EFF youth command.
"Guidelines were presented to the central command team (CCT) for the establishment of sub-regional command teams and for the establishment of the EFF youth command which will be distributed to all structures in due course," said Malema
The EFF youth command will be led by student command president Sihle Lonzi as the convenor, with Naledi Chirwa-Mpungose taking on the role of coordinator.
In addition to the youth command, the EFF has made key leadership deployments to strengthen its organisational presence across the country. Malema and secretary-general Marshall Dlamini will be deployed across provinces to ensure the EFF’s continued grassroots engagement. Other significant deployments include:
Additionally, new leadership structures have been established, with dedicated desks to manage gender-based violence, labour, communications, security, and political education, among others.
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