Mbalula hints Malema, others may be part of government next year

In an interview with City Press published on Sunday, ANC elections head Fikile Mbalula said it was not out of the question that opposition parties may be invited to be part of another government of national unity after the 2019 elections.

This could happen even if the ANC gets enough of the vote to form a government without coalitions.

He also offered his thoughts on EFF leader Julius Malema.

Mbalula referenced the fact that the National Freedom Party and Freedom Front Plus had been made part of government in the same way. While he did not speculate on what would happen between the EFF and ANC next year, analysts have pointed out that the two parties appear to be cosying up to each other more, especially since they seem to have found common ground on radical issues such as land expropriation without compensation.

Malema has said his party would consider voting with the ANC in Nelson Mandela Bay if the ANC could present it with a credible candidate to replace the DA’s mayor, Athol Trollip.

Mbalula said he would not try to convince Malema to return to the ANC, but anything was possible in politics.

“For now we are opponents … [but] I can tell you that in politics nothing is static.”

Mbalula said that “our choices of options in relation to how we constitute government are very strategic in their very nature”.

He said Malema’s confidence about next year’s elections was “worrisome” but no one should write off what the ANC would be able to achieve.

Mbalula trended on Twitter on Friday night when he accidentally told voters to register to vote for the EFF.

He has been hard at work on the ground during the IEC registration weekend.

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