Busisiwe Mkhwebane could be ‘useful for EFF in ideological battles against ANC’

Former public protector and Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) new MP Busisiwe Mkhwebane is neither a vote-magnet nor a mass mobiliser and her presence in the EFF will not help the party in the 2024 elections.

However, Julius Malema and the red berets will use her as a battering ram in ideological battles against the ANC, experts said.

The political experts expressed their views as Mkhwebane made her first public appearance at party rallies wearing party regalia. She attended the party’s gathering in Mpumalanga, her home province, at the weekend.

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Political analyst Sandile Swana said: “Mkhwebane is not a political vote magnet, rather like Thuli Madonsela was a popular public protector just like judge Mogoeng Mogoeng (the former chief justice), but they are not political magnets.

“Instead Mkhwebane will assist the EFF as a battering ram in the ideological battles within the ANC, in the factions of the ANC and the divisions between the EFF and the ANC.”

The analyst stated that Mkhwebane may even be a signal that the EFF was a good, warm political home for disgruntled ANC members outside the ANC.

“Mkhwebane is an ideologue, she believes in radical economic transformation, she believes in fighting white monopoly capital and all those types of things.

“But I don’t think she is a mass mobiliser.”

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Swana said in recruiting Mkhwebane, the EFF was also trying to deepen its intellectual capacity, where the EFF was leading all other parties.

However, the party would not become a majority in the next 10 years. “The EFF is unlikely to be a 40% or 50% party but it starts to have a front that shapes and changes the direction of the nation. I don’t see them in the next 10 years becoming a majority. That’s an unlikely scenario, but they are going to shape South African politics,” Swana said.

Another expert Zakhele Ndlovu, politics lecturer at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, also said Mkhwebane is not going to bring votes to the EFF.

“The fact that the EFF is attracting these high-profile individuals like Mkhwebane, Magasela Mzobe, Mzwanele Manyi and others does not translate into more votes for them,” he said.

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Ndlovu said the EFF could grow a bit but its growth in electoral performance had hit the ceiling.

“At this point you could say that because of the trends that we’ve seen in the last couple of elections, we are going see some exponential growth of the EFF but I don’t see EFF becoming a force to be reckoned with.

“It has almost reached its ceiling as a lot of people are beginning to realise that the problem is having Malema at the helm and there are no prospects of him stepping down any time soon

Many people and voters don’t take the EFF seriously.”

She said even many university students she came across wore the party’s regalia as a “fashion thing” rather than a demonstration of dedication to the party.

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Ndlovu added: “He is reckless really in so many ways – the way he speaks, he says things that people want to hear, he is a populist. I don’t think that a rational voter can trust him to be a good leader for South Africa.

“Obviously, he appeals to a lot of young people, because he speaks to what they want to hear, they like him,” Ndlovu said.

Malema’s leadership style was repulsive and he often acted like a dictator to fellow party members, she added.

She cited a recent incident in which Malema allegedly personally expelled leaders who failed to organise buses to ferry members to the EFF 10th anniversary rally at FNB stadium, saying that would come back to haunt the party because it was a unilateral decision.

“The EFF could grow a little bit, but when it comes to forming coalitions, they are going to be some sort of king-makers because of their numbers.”