National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete referred to EFF members as thugs and cockroaches while addressing the North West ANC’s eighth provincial congress.
The Mail&Guardian online quoted Mbete saying on Saturday: “If we don’t work we will continue to have cockroaches like Malema roaming all over the place.”
She warned party members that the EFF would cause disruptions in provincial legislatures and claimed the party was conspiring with western backers.
“Those thugs there are going to come to provinces to run a similar campaign, not only in legislatures but also in municipalities.
“You must teach our children not to be misled by those wearing red overalls. Those people are not working with people of this country alone, they are pawns in a bigger scheme of things where some western governments are involved,” she was quoted as saying.
She said the EFF wanted to “collapse Parliament” and force an early election.
“They want to take this country so that they must take over the mines and share them with friends they were seen gallivanting with in Europe.”