EFF ‘an existential threat’ to ANC and DA

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) is indeed an existential threat to both the ruling ANC and the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA), and both parties have begun to panic over its electoral growth against their own declines.

Political analyst Sandile Swana said there were indications that the ANC and DA were not confident about their prospects in the 2024 election and as a result the EFF had become their common threat.

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Swana cited the EFF’s Dali Mpofu’s previous campaign statement to him that the EFF saw itself an alternative to the ANC and was not bothered about the DA because they were confident of overtaking it anyway.

ANC ‘not confident’

“First of all, the ANC is not confident that it will win the majority. Secondly, they [ANC and DA] are panicking because they are not being recognised by other parties as legitimate leaders of any coalition government. The other parties treat them as equals while they want to be treated as bigger, legitimate leaders in spite of their electoral decline,” he said.

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Political analyst Zakhele Ndlovu, of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, said the EFF and the DA would never work closely together because they had nothing in common in all material respects.

“They won’t be able to form a coalition because they have totally different belief systems.”

Swana said the ANC and the DA had resorted to using the law and money through the national coalition dialogue and the DA’s Moonshot Pact to stem the tide of their declines. He said this was recognition that the Moonshot Pact was not going to win and that the ANC was “accelerating downwards very rapidly”.

“So the EFF has entered the lion’s den. All the DA and ANC forces are aiming to kill the EFF which is a decisive political threat to the ANC. By joining with the DA, the ANC is abandoning the national democratic revolution and the idea that there is racial capitalism, white monopoly capital and economic apartheid in South Africa.

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“The economy of SA is based on race and the ANC has no capacity to address that, absolutely none,” Swana said.

ANC and EFF ‘have a lot in common’

Ndlovu said it was untrue that the ANC would not form coalitions with the EFF and it was mere rhetoric to make people believe the EFF was not as powerful as it claims to be.

He pointed out that the EFF was the third largest political party and the kingmaker, especially in the Gauteng and Eastern Cape metros.

“Ultimately they will form some form of coalition, be it at national or provincial level.”

The ANC and EFF have a lot in common in ideology. The ideals of the EFF emanated from its leaders who were former ANC members, including the idea of economic freedom which originated in the ANC Youth League.

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“So I don’t buy this idea that they won’t form a coalition with the EFF, When push comes to a shove, they will do it,” Ndlovu said.

He said the DA felt let down by the EFF when the EFF abruptly pulled out of its coalition with the party and reverted to the ANC. In the Ekurhuleni metro in 2022, the EFF voted with the DA against the ANC only to flip flop later and support the ANC to oust the DA mayor.

‘A matter of trust’

The EFF only cooperated with the DA via the back door in the Joburg metro by working with then DA mayor Herman Mashaba to run the city.

“It’s a matter of trust. They don’t trust the EFF. More significantly it’s a matter of ideology. They don’t have anything in common.”

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During a party seminar recently, DA federal council chair Helen Zille made it clear the fight would be between the two opposition parties in 2024. The DA dropped from 22% to 20% in 2019 while the ANC voter tally plummeted from 72% under Jacob Zuma to the current 57% under Cyril Ramaphosa.

But the EFF and the Freedom Front Plus, to some extent, were the only parties growing at the polls.

– ericn@citizen.co.za