The 95 000-capacity stadium was filled beyond capacity, forcing secretary-general Marshall Dlamini to ask stadium management to open the gates for more supporters to be allowed onto the pitch.

An overflow field was also set up outside the stadium to allow supporters to follow proceedings.

In his address, party President Julius Malema praised the red berets for building the country's third biggest political party within the space of a decade and Mashego also said the filling of the stadium is equal to two seats in the legislature.

I also believe Malema filling the stadium is reminiscing of the ANC during the time of Thabo Mbeki, but we need to be very careful about the filling of the stadium because 80 to 90 thousand people are close to either two or three seats in the legislature, so, a stadium is not a large number of seats in the legislature and to know the high levels of voters as young people do not go out to vote and it remains high," Mashego said.

While Malema alluded that people had written off the party and had even said it would never achieve 1% of the vote when it was formed in 2013, Mashego added the EFF has the potential to assist poor communities. 

Meanwhile, leaders of other opposition parties, such as UDM president Bantu Holomisa and ATM president Vuyo Zungula also attended the EFF’s rally and gave messages of support.