The EFF wants Nelson Mandela Bay voters to hand it outright control of the metro, promising to rein in corruption, fix collapsing infrastructure and tackle the crime and unemployment crisis.
On Saturday, the EFF in the metro held a screening of the Tshela Thupa Rally at the Tamboville multi-purpose centre in Kariega.
The party's mayoral candidate, Sinawo Thambo, later led supporters in a march around KwaLanga to show the party's force as well as showcase Ward 50 councillor candidate Siyabulela Jonas.
Speaking on the sidelines of the rally after party leader Julius Malema's main address at the Orlando Stadium in Soweto, Thambo pledged to close the municipality’s purse to the tender-driven system it blames for unfinished projects and failed service delivery.
He urged residents to vote for change in the upcoming elections, promising to tackle failing infrastructure, water and electricity woes, sewage spills and unemployment.
"We’re encouraging every person to go out and vote whether it’s on November 2 if you’re a special voter or on November 4.
"Let’s use this opportunity to change our municipality, to fix our infrastructure to ensure people get a reliable electricity supply, to ensure they get reliable water, to put an end to sewage on our streets, to put an end to drug and alcohol abuse by the youth and ensure we revive our economy and get people employed.
"It doesn’t matter who you want to vote for, but the best option is the EFF.
"Let’s go out, let’s not leave it to chance. No more coalitions, let’s vote for the EFF to have complete power to change our lives.
"It’s victory or death, and we choose victory," Thambo said.
With eight seats in the 120-seat council, the EFF is part of the outgoing governing coalition in the metro.
Two of its councillors occupy the positions of political head for budget and treasury as well as for electricity and energy.
Thambo said that while on the campaign trail and during door-to-door visits across the city, he encountered deep frustration over crime, gangsterism, drug abuse and unemployment.
"Crime is one of the most pressing concerns we’ve heard from our people.
"We need to boost our South African Police force in terms of its workforce.
"We need to incentivise patrollers who are protecting communities and community forums.
"They’re very concerned about the high unemployment rate and how young people have handed themselves over to crime, and a lot of drug abuse in the community.
"Gangsterism is a huge problem as well.
"Retrenchments in the automotive industry are a huge crisis, and at the root of it is the fact that infrastructure has collapsed because no-one wants to invest here.
"They are very concerned about the corruption that is bred by people who do projects and don’t finish them.
"We’re going to fight against that by ensuring that we do a citywide audit of the infrastructure in the city and we fix things once and for all and stop relying on tenders by closing the purse of the municipality," Thambo said.
Meanwhile, at the Orlando Stadium in Johannesburg, Malema said in his address that municipalities had been captured by service providers, contractors, corrupt officials and politicians.
"They have turned local government finances into their personal bank account, and our people are left with nothing but broken promises and broken infrastructure.
"These are not stories we read in newspapers.
"These are the problems our people told us about when we knocked on their doors, and we saw them with our own eyes, because we live in these communities," Malema said.
He said residents went for days without water, particularly in the Eastern Cape where he said dams were declining and yet there were no plans to address this.
"People of the Eastern Cape, I challenge you today.
"You have to demonstrate that you care about the future by removing the corrupt and putting in a caring local government.
"I have been to all corners of this country, but what I personally saw in the Eastern Cape is extremely heartbreaking.
"In Nelson Mandela Bay, residents in Motherwell, KwaNobuhle and Kwazakhele have gone for days without water, while leaking pipes in the same city waste water on the streets.
"Our people are told to save water while the municipality fails to fix its own leaks," Malema said.
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