Breakaway party from EFF hopes to provide new home for disgruntled members

The feud between the EFF and the IFP has created a rift within the red berets in KwaZulu-Natal, with some councillors rumoured to be on the verge of jumping ship.

Following the 2021 municipal elections, the EFF entered a coalition to put the IFP in power in KZN’s hung municipalities. In return, the EFF would get deputy mayor positions in those municipalities.

ALSO READ | Divisions in EFF KZN

However, the relationship between the two political parties has since soured — with the EFF now working with the ANC in an attempt to topple the IFP in the province’s hung municipalities, which include Nongoma, Mtubatuba, Newcastle and Mhlathuze.

EFF councillors considering joining AEF
However, some EFF councillors told The Witness they were not happy with the national party leadership’s directive of working with the ANC to dislodge the IFP from power in KZN.

The councillors said they were now considering joining an EFF splinter organisation — the African Economic Freedom (AEF).

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The fact of the matter is that the national leadership decision has put us in a difficult position. A few months ago, we were going around the province telling people to dump the ANC because it’s a rotten and corrupt political party.
Now, we are being told to go back to the very same people and tell them to support the ANC — it makes us come across as dishonest and unprincipled people.
Former EFF provincial secretary, Sifiso Mthethwa, confirmed to The Witness that some party members in the province were no longer “happy” in the EFF.

They are looking for a new home. They don’t agree with a number of decisions that the national leadership has made.
Even this recent decision to turn against the IFP was never properly explained to EFF members. They were never given reasons why they should suddenly work with the ANC.
Mthethwa, who was the EFF KZN provincial secretary from 2018 to October 2022, said the decision made by the party’s national leadership was motivated by greed.

They are only interested in power, and not the people on the ground,” he said. Mthethwa conceded that he was the brain behind the formation of the new AEF.
I can confirm that I have been receiving phone calls and messages from EFF members, ANC members and members of other political parties who want to be part of the new organisation.
EFF provincial chairperson, Mongezi Twala, denied that the decision to terminate the cooperative agreement with the IFP was causing unhappiness within the party in KZN.

The decision has the support of all EFF structures in KZN, including EFF deputy mayors and councillors who were elected as part of coalition arrangement with the IFP.
In fact, it’s the EFF deputy mayors and councillors who have been complaining about the IFP. They said the agreement was only benefitting the IFP and not the EFF.
In the Nongoma Municipality, the EFF, ANC and NFP are currently pushing for the removal of the IFP mayor through a vote of no confidence.

However, the plans to remove IFP mayors in KZN hung municipalities could fall flat should some EFF councillors resolve to break away from the red berets.

Who is Sifiso Mthethwa
Mthethwa was the EFF KwaZulu-Natal provincial secretary between 2018 and 2022.

He joined the EFF in 2016 and was immediately appointed as the party’s Mkhanyakude regional coordinator.

ALSO READ | IFP, EFF tensions escalate

In the same year, Mthethwa was elected as the EFF Mkhanyakude regional chairperson.

Two years later, at the party’s provincial elective conference, Mthethwa was elected as the EFF’s KZN provincial secretary.

In 2023, shortly after completing his four-year term as EFF provincial secretary, Mthethwa began working on the launch of a rival political party, the African Economic Freedom (AEF).