The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) is a party that has gained significant support in recent elections, becoming the third-largest party in Parliament after the African National Congress (ANC) and the Democratic Alliance (DA). With growing support in every election so far, the EFF has captured many former supporters of the ANC Youth League who now follow Julius Malema, Floyd Shivambu, and Mbuyiseni Ndlozi.
The formation of the EFF was mainly due to personality clashes between Zuma and Malema, rather than policy differences. However, significant policy differences quickly emerged, not least relating to race. The EFF’s support will continue to increase under current conditions, with an extremely corrupt ANC in charge and a sky-high unemployment rate. It has now been a year since the State Capture inquiry report was released by Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, and there has been no improvement in the fight against corruption.
The EFF has changed the face of Parliament since 2009, bringing the vibrancy of young people and radical hostility to the non-racial programme of the ANC since the time of Mandela. The EFF adamantly and vehemently fought against Zuma’s corruption, but mainly because he expelled its leaders from the ANC rather than on principle.
The Limpopo provincial government was dissolved by the national government after it was bankrupted by Cassel Mathale, the ANC premier of the province. Mathale had worked closely with Malema, who was then president of the ANCYL, and became premier after former premier Sello Moloto defected to Cope in 2009.
In principle, the EFF cannot be trusted to fight corruption any more than Zuma can, if they assume political power in the future. The standpoint of the EFF on the VBS pensioners’ bank heist in Limpopo was very revealing. Under an EFF government, South Africans could face even worse living conditions, as it would implement the economic policies of former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe and former Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, leading to an economic meltdown and further massive hardships.
Julius Malema, the former president of the ANC Youth League, has been in a much better position ten years post-expulsion. After being suspended for five years by the party’s national disciplinary committee, Malema and his team were charged with various offenses, including storming the party’s national general council meeting in Durban and threatening regime change in Botswana.
A court battle with the South African Revenue Service (Sars) ensued over Malema’s failure to submit tax returns from 2006 to 2010, leaving him with a tax bill of R16 million plus penalties. He was arrested for tax evasion not long after his expulsion from the ANC, but Sars eventually withdrew the charges and accepted an earlier agreement with him to settle the matter.
A decade after his expulsion, Malema is now the head of South Africa’s third-largest political party, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), which has grown constantly since its launch in 2013. The EFF has become a kingmaker and breaker in the Gauteng metros of Tshwane, Ekurhuleni, and Johannesburg since 2016.
Since November, it has taken on similar roles in the KwaZulu-Natal municipalities it co-governs with the Inkatha Freedom Party. It has also turned parliament on its head since its first 25 MPs were sworn in after the 2014 election, most famously with the Pay Back The Money campaign, which eventually saw then-president Jacob Zuma ordered to refund public works more than R248 million spent on “non-security” upgrades to his Nkandla home.
Malema believes his expulsion from the ANC at that time was less about his comments on Botswana and more about removing the proponents of radical economic change from the ANC and preventing them from backing Kgalema Motlanthe against Zuma at the party’s Mangaung national conference in December 2012. He had to come to the realisation that their expulsion from the ANC at that time was not necessarily an expulsion of individuals but a suppression of the struggle for economic emancipation.
EFF did a great job yesterday, but I disagree with this song, how are we supposed to work together if we keep fuelling hate, unless ofcourse the aim is not to work together. The same message can be expressed without hate or violence.
— Moshabisto (@Tebzolah) July 30, 2023
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