The Economic Freedom Fighters on Sunday called Higher Ecudaction Minister Blade Nzimande “an intellectual dwarf” in response to his recent calls for the ANC Youth League to work to ensure that the ruling party’s radical political rival dies an organisational death.

“The EFF is not shocked by the call the general secretary of the South African Communist Party, Blade Nzimande, has made for the EFF to be killed,” EFF spokesman Mbuyiseni Ndlozi said.

“He does not celebrate that there are leftist forces in South Africa pursuing socialism and working hard to undermine the neo-liberal order because he is part of it.”

Nzimande reportedly at the SACP’s special national congress in the past week urged the ANCYL to launch an all-out politcal battle to starve the EFF of voter support. He said the Youth League had the energy to take on Julius Malema’s party, which claimed more than six percent of votes in the 2014 elections.

Ndlozi said it was telling that Nzimande had not called for the demise of the Democratic Alliance despite its open support for privatisation or that of the Freedom Front Plus, which “defends white interests”.

“He wants the EFF, a socialist and left-wing party, to die because in essence the EFF does not depend on white intellectuals like Nzimande’s SACP.

“What gives him sleepless nights is that, unlike him, blacks of the EFF have managed to truly build an alternative socialist party without any white supervision.

“We know that he is an intellectual dwarf that depends on (SACP deputy general secretary) Jeremy Cronin to make any meaningful and substantial contribution. Therefore what he is saying also reflects the deep jealousy suffered by white communists like Cronin who cannot take anything black that is intellectually self-sufficient. They are therefore use self-hating dwarfs who suffer from colonial psychosis like Nzimande to communicate their desires.”

Ndlozi claimed that the SACP has traditionally marginalised “radical blacks” and protected white privilege.

“Nzimande is therefore representing the best of this historical tradition: kill any party that demands nationalization as this is tempering with white privileges.

“We are not afraid because should any membership audit be done, the membership of the EFF in Northern Cape is bigger than that of the SACP and the ANCYL combined. Nzimande can be rest assured, we are the future and no one, even the ANC, can stop us.” ANA