EFF leader Julius Malema says the unrest that gripped the country two weeks ago was a cry for help by citizens struggling with poverty.
Malema, who was speaking at the EFF's 8th birthday celebration on Monday, rejected President Cyril Ramaphosa’s claims that the unrest was an attempted insurrection.
The EFF has been criticised for opposing the deployment of 25 000 soldiers to KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng to help deal with the violent looting and destruction of property.
Malema insisted that the EFF did not support looting and destruction, but his party was committed to supporting the poor.
He labelled the looting as a cry for help from ordinary citizens who sought food to feed their families.
Malema said the government's deployment of the SANDF showed its lack of compassion, and signs of a kleptocratic state that was determined to crush democratic rights to protest.
He said the EFF had foreseen the impending unrest just as it had expected the events that had gripped the country for eight years under former president Jacob Zuma's presidency. He said South Africa was a ticking time bomb.
"The activities of the past two weeks reflect SA is sitting on a time bomb. It was not an insurrection, liars say what happened two weeks was an insurrection," Malema said.
He challenged Ramaphosa to address citizens without soldiers and assure them that their needs will be met.
Malema also spoke boastfully of the EFF's achievements in the past eight years. He said the party had shaken up politic, not only in South Africa but the rest of the African continent.
The EFF had like-minded parties in countries like Zimbabwe and Namibia, Malema said, which underlined the urgent need for the economic emancipation of the African continent.
Other notable achievements from the party, according to its leader, was bringing to the fore the urgent discussion on expropriation of land without compensation.
Malema said the EFF had also changed how black people saw themselves when confronting racist situations.
He said the party had grown since its founding in 2014, having obtained 1.2 million votes compared to close to 2 million votes in the 2019 general elections.