Stripped of dirty money, Emperor Julius will have no clothes

If the ability to fill a stadium was an indicator of voting power, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) would be a serious contender to take over after next year’s elections.

Similarly, if the size of Twitter (X) armies or media coverage determined election outcomes, EFF leader Julius Malema might soon be president. But he won’t be.

Malema has been grabbing headlines for years. He’s in the media daily, occasionally trending on Twitter, yet the EFF seldom polls above the 10% to 15% range. There is not a big market for Malema’s brand of race hatred, lawlessness and unrealistic promises of free stuff.

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Claiming to represent gardeners and domestic workers, he hobnobs in a Gucci-bling world, chauffeured behind tinted windows, sponsored by cigarette smugglers. And he is dangerous.

His dictatorial tendencies came to the fore when he barred 439 EFF public representatives from attending the weekend bash because they did not arrange and pay for transport for constituents. The party exacts punitive levies from its councillors, MPLs and MPs.

For the commander-in-chief it’s all about barking orders and issuing threats, even to his second-in-command Floyd Shivambu.

In March this year, Gareth van Onselen, CEO of Victory Research, said the EFF’s offer of “a radically centralised socialist utopia has limited appeal”.

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“The party is now stuck at about 10% of the vote. Sometimes it goes up a bit, sometimes down, but it has quickly found the 10%-15% band that constitutes its electoral cap.”

Similarly, Frans Cronje, CEO of the Social Research Foundation, said earlier that the EFF was polling at about 12%. It will be interesting to see whether the raptures over the EFF’s 10th anniversary celebrations will affect polling data.

Rather than enhancing their chances of moving into the Union Buildings, the rally may have the opposite effect. Before the weekend, there was already a rising tide of anti-EFF sentiment in the ANC. Now there will be even more pressure for the governing party to dump the EFF.

Two weeks ago, ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula told an ANC Youth League gathering that the party should withdraw from cooperation arrangements with the EFF.

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Last week, veterans’ league leader Snuki Zikalala told journalists that coalitions with the EFF stripped the ANC of dignity.

“It doesn’t make us look good as the ANC to go into a coalition with a party that doesn’t believe in the values of the ANC, doesn’t even respect our constitutional democracy and doesn’t believe in the rule of law,” Zikalala said.

Even Deputy President Paul Mashatile and Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi, who were instrumental in setting up coalitions with the EFF, now seem ready to dump them.

Malema’s racist chants at the rally played into the hands of those who don’t want to see the ANC’s brand further damaged.

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While Malema remains unmoved by threats of local and international legal action, he will take notice if his income streams are stopped. To do this, the tender-loving EFF must be removed from all co-government arrangements.

Long overdue prosecutions must proceed, including On Point Engineering (Limpopo, 2012), the VBS looting scandal and much else. Stripped of dirty money, Emperor Julius will have no clothes.