"If you do not bring a new government on May 8, people of North West will have themselves to be blamed because in North West the government of the day is rotten to the core," Malema told supporters at the provincial launch of the EFF's elections manifesto in Lethobong, Rustenburg.

The African National Congress was no longer able to provide leaders in government and "went to an old age home and took an old man" to be premier in the North West, he said.

"You are being led by a pensioner; they took him while he was enjoying his pension. We are taking him back to [the] old age home. In North West we want young people who have energy, who will fight with mines so that mines can employ our people."

The Bojanala region of the North West was rich in platinum, but people were unemployed because platinum was being mined underground and loaded into trucks and taken to Europe, Malema said.

"They do not [help] us to get employment. They took platinum, they do not clean here, they clean it in China where they clean it, people are hired to clean it. Under EFF government there is no platinum that will be cleaned outside. It will be cleaned by you."

Malema said if the EFF was in government, social grants would be doubled and government would offer free uniforms and shoes to every school pupil. A clinic would be open in every ward, 24 hours a day, and government would build two-bedroom houses with toilets. The lowest paid workers would earn R4500 a month, he said.

African News Agency