Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema on Sunday said he could not believe that the mighty African National Congress (ANC) would one day celebrate its 105th year anniversary at a small venue like Orlando Stadium in Soweto.

“We have humbled them,” he told more than 1 500 supporters after visiting detained student activist Bonginkosi Khanyile at the Westville Correctional Services Centre in Durban.

Khanyile, a student activist, was arrested in September during the Fees Must Fall protests and has remained behind bars despite the release of other student leaders around the country.

“I know the ANC. I worked with them, I know when they are hurting and they are hurting extremely right now. Inhliziyo yabo ibuhlungu,” he said in isiZulu.

“They are in trouble. Look at what happened in Soweto today. One hundred to 200 buses from KZN were driven to Soweto. A place that has six million people…But you go and fetch people from Nkandla go to a rally in Soweto.”

ANC might lose KZN support, EFF leader warns

He said 12 000 ANC members were bused in from Mpumalanga.

“That is concession - they are conceding that it is over. Gauteng is gone, if KZN is not focused, it will also go, like Gauteng.

“The taking of people from all over to fill up a small stadium [like] Orlando Stadium - the EFF must celebrate [that] because the ANC used to hold rallies at FNB [stadium]. The arrival of the EFF has removed the ANC from the FNB [stadium] to an Orlando Stadium.”

Malema said seeing the party hold its bash in Orlando Stadium was enough for it to celebrate.

“We have humbled them. They now know what it means [to be humble]. We had a rally in Orlando Stadium without a single bus.

“We held our last rally at Peter Mokaba Stadium - that stadium is bigger than Orlando Stadium, it takes 45 000. The ANC, which used to go to FNB, now goes to a stadium like Orlando and takes a microphone and tells the masses that it is recovering.

“Recovering from what? Because this is what happens when you are led by uneducated people. He [President Jacob Zuma] just goes with the flow, I am sure he thinks Orlando Stadium is bigger than FNB, it is possible.”

Filling up a ‘small’ stadium

Malema said people were not bused in from other provinces when it held its own rally at Orlando Stadium.

“We never transported anyone from outside Gauteng. Even if we wanted to, we don’t have the money to."

He said the ANC should be ashamed instead of proudly “and convincingly saying that it is a national rally by bringing people from all over to come and fill up a small stadium".

“We are happy, we have humbled them, who ever thought that in your lifetime that a 105 years movement would hold a rally at Orlando Stadium?

“When you see that the ANC is dying and you are still following, that is blind loyalty. This is your home, this is an alternative for black people.

Governing with the DA

“Never mind that we voted with the Democratic Alliance (DA), tactics are more important than the strategy. How you arrive at your strategy is critical.

“We have never abandoned the strategic notion of the EFF - that is why we are not with them in government, because we cannot co-govern with white monopoly capital. But we want to remove the ANC.”

For now, he said, the party would help "white monopoly capital" to remove the ANC.

“When you remove the ANC you remove resources from the ANC and an ANC without resources, is like the EFF. We are equal.

“We cannot govern with the DA, we are not friends with the DA, tactics are what is important.”

He said the EFF would return the land to black South Africans so that they would able to call the country "home" again.