The EFF’s voice matters, even if we don’t like it

South African politics – as we have said many times before – is not about serving the people or making the country a better place.

It is about two things: getting close to the patronage trough and clashing supersized egos.

So, it is not surprising to see, in one of our lead stories today, that the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) is in danger of being badly damaged by divisions at grassroots level.

In the Free State and in Gauteng, the squabbling among the “fighters” is reported to be so serious that it is impacting on organisational matters which could, in turn, cost the EFF votes in the 2019 election.

The EFF is driven by vacuous, populist policies from a clutch of “Gucci revolutionaries”, and has proto-fascist tendencies, so we can expect more vigorous, and even violent, debates within its ranks.

EFF leader Julius Malema’s political career was born in violence and intimidation so, again, that will not be surprising.

However, much as we don’t like the EFF, we believe it does give voice to a significant proportion of South Africans who are frustrated and angry that their lives have not changed since 1994.

And democracy is all about a plurality of voices, no matter how outrageous those voices may be at times.