DA, EFF left off Brics guest list for worry they will ’embarrass’ ANC

The ANC has explained why certain political parties have not been invited to the Brics Political Parties Plus Dialogue, saying only its “sister parties and fraternal organisations” had been invited.

South Africa’s main opposition parties, the Democratic Alliance (DA) and Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), were not invited to the gathering of political parties from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (Brics) and other countries which aspire to become members of the forum.

ALSO READ: Is Mbalula being stupid over EFF?

At least 54 parties from all over the world are due to participate in the prelude to the Brics summit next month.

ANC vs DA and EFF

The ANC, which is hosting the dialogue, feared that had it invited the DA and EFF, those two parties would have dominated the gathering and even rocked the boat to embarrass the governing party.

ALSO READ: Malema accuses ANC of jealousy, but experts say EFF ‘not yet a threat’ to ruling party

Asked what criteria was used to select political parties invited to the dialogue, ANC deputy secretary-general Nomvula Mokonyane said the party had only invited fraternal and sister organisations, liberation movements, parties within Brics and political parties from countries which had expressed an interest in joining Brics.

She was responding to a question by Turkish journalist Türkmen Terzi on why the ANC only invited Türkiye’s ruling party, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party, and not the opposition parties that are socialist and historically aligned to the ANC.

Mokonyane said the Pan Africanist Congress was the only South African opposition party invited because of its historic involvement in Africa.

ALSO READ: Between a rock and a hard place: ANC-EFF partnership ‘would create tension’ within ANC

In addition to the ANC and PAC, other political parties participating are the Communist Party of China, the governing United Party of Russia, the Russian Communist Party, the governing party in India, Bharatiya Janata, the Worker’s Party of Brazil and other parties from Africa, the Middle East, South America and Asia. Last weekend, the ANC clearly indicated it was on a warpath with the EFF.

Coalitions

This surprised many because the ANC had said it would only enter into a coalition agreement with the EFF in Gauteng and nationally.

Gauteng ANC chair Panyaza Lesufi recently announced the province would form a coalition government with the EFF in the province in 2024. This is seen as the ANC anticipating that it would lose Gauteng to the DA, and the move to align with the EFF is meant to stop the DA from taking the province.

ALSO READ: Joburg’s new ‘caretaker’ mayor will last if he doesn’t threaten ANC-EFF’s interests

The DA has started making moves to unseat the ANC in the 2024 general election. The sole purpose of its “moonshot pact” is to remove the ANC from power and stop a coalition with the EFF from governing the country.

‘Flip-flopper’

ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula heavily criticised EFF president Julius Malema.

The public spat between the two former ANC Youth League presidents became an indirect social media dialogue as their public utterances, in which they criticised each other, were recalled and reproduced in a video clip this week.

ALSO READ: Will ANC-EFF coalition fast-track Malema’s ambitions to be head of state in 2029?

Mbalula accused Malema of being a “flip-flopper of note”, who was talking about a revolution as if he knew anything about it. He was somebody who says this today and woke up the following day talking something else.

Mbalula said the EFF’s thinktank was not Malema but his deputy, Floyd Shivambu. Should Shivambu die tomorrow, the thinking in the EFF would be gone, he said. Malema accused Mbalula of “using people for his political survival and then dumping them”.

He said he had been Mbalula’s victim, as he had used him to get into power and later dumped him within a few months.

ALSO READ: ‘ANC delivered political freedom, EFF will deliver economic freedom,’ say Unisa students

“That’s how he has been, he uses people politically and then dumps them,” said Malema. “If he loses his power now, he will come back to me like nothing happened. “He will look for me wherever I am and continue as if it’s business as usual.”