Success of ANC-EFF coalition depends on balance of forces

An alliance between the ANC and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) may succeed if the two parties undertake to hold each other accountable as partners in government in future, according to experts.

But by joining hands with the EFF, the ANC runs the risk of being compromised into accepting the EFF’s almost impossible radical demands, particularly on land expropriation.

The party could also force the ANC to agree to let it take a number of crucial seats in Cabinets, provincial executive councils, municipal mayorships and mayoral committees in future.

However, the general feeling among the experts was that there was nothing wrong with talking about setting up alliances or coalitions as it was part of the political game.

It’s only when the aims and outcomes were based on a nefarious agenda that they raised suspicion. Political analyst Dr Ralph Mathekga said the negotiations between the ANC chapters in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng had become a necessity to both the ANC and the EFF because both realised they could not win an election on their own in future.

The precarious circumstances in which the ANC was losing votes and the EFF electoral performance remained stagnant had pulled the two parties together.

“Pre-election alliance talks is a Success of ANC-EFF coalition depends on balance of forces good idea, a recognition from the onset that each party won’t make it on its own.

“If the two parties agree on a programme of action and then hold each other accountable while remaining collectively accountable, they can work better and it can work to improves service delivery.

But if the coalition is driven by power grab and access to resources, that’s will just be more of the same,” Mathekga said. Another political analyst, Dr Levy Ndou, said it was common for political parties to explore talks with a view to forming alliances or coalitions before and after the election.

He said such talks were normal as they were part of the political game. But Ndou was concerned that coalitions in South Africa always failed because they were not based on principles but on convenience or power grabbing.

The analyst said: “Coalitions in SA are not based on any principle, they are not legally binding and can change any time.

That is why coalitions collapse in SA. The agreements are done among a few people and usually the constituencies are not informed.

For that reason, these coalitions do not have a strong base.” Some observers saw dangers in any alliance with the EFF, which was notorious for flip-flopping on policy and its tendency to withdraw spontaneously from a coalition partnership.

They said the governing party could find itself caught up in Julius Malema’s web of radicalism, or even the red berets’ anarchism.

With the EFF as the bully-boy of South African politics, it could push the ANC into compromising and agreeing to its demands for radical economic transformation (RET), including expropriation of land without compensation.

Last year, the EFF tried to convince the ANC to drop Die Stem from the national anthem. On land, the EFF has been encouraging its members to occupy empty land to erect shacks.

The ANC previously rejected the EFF’s proposal for wholly state-owned land but the governing party is still divided on radical economic transformation.

KwaZulu-Natal ANC-initiated talks with the EFF did not surprise some as the two structures are under the same RET umbrella.

With this and its support for former president Jacob Zuma, the EFF had become an extension of the Zuma faction.

But when the Gauteng ANC joined the fray to negotiate with the EFF, it raised eyebrows within a structure that is fully behind Cyril Ramaphosa’s second term. Some saw it as an indication of ANC desperation to stay in power, even if meant sleeping with the devil.

ALSO READ: ANC confident of ‘decisive majority’ in 2024 as DA tells EFF to pick ‘a struggle’