EFF president Julius Malema hoisted aloft on a hydraulic platform above the packed-to-the-brim FNB Stadium as he concluded his address to the celebration was pure political theatre — and a vivid reminder that 10 years on, he remains firmly in control of the party.
Malema — and the party he founded along with his deputy, Floyd Shivambu, after their expulsion from the ANC, whose youth league they led, in 2013 — have plenty of reasons to break out the bunting and red confetti.
Unlike other breakaways from the governing party, the EFF has both survived and prospered as it reaches the 10-year milestone.
The United Democratic Movement (UDM), formed by General Bantu Holomisa, who was expelled from the ANC, and former National Party constitutional negotiator Roelf Meyer, in 1997, took 14 seats in the National Assembly and established itself in six of the nine provinces in the 1999 elections.
But the UDM’S fortunes waned quickly, despite successes in local government in the Eastern Cape in 2000, with Meyer leaving the party in the same year after falling out with Holomisa.
Since then, successive elections have seen the UDM lose support and the party has been reduced to two seats in parliament and a presence limited mainly to the Eastern Cape.
The Congress of the People (Cope), established in 2008 by supporters of former president Thabo Mbeki who had left the party after his defeat by Jacob Zuma in 2007, has fared even worse.
Cope, led by Mosiuoa Lekota and Mbhazima Shilowa, made a strong start in the 2009 elections, taking 30 parliamentary seats and establishing itself across the provinces.
But Lekota and Shilowa, neither of whom was satisfied with being a party co-leader, soon fell out, with their factions ending up in court in a leadership battle during 2013 and 2014.
The electoral decline caused by the infighting and factionalism in Cope was dramatic.
The EFF came out of its first national and provincial elections in 2014 with 25 seats in the National Assembly — beating both the UDM and Cope — and securing a foothold in a number of provinces.
Source: https://mg.co.za/politics/2023-08-04-malema-faces-his-first-big-challenge/
Content created and supplied by: NewsReloaded (via Opera
News )
