Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema has introduced a twist to the South African political landscape.
In an interview with eNCA’s CheckPoint‚ Malema said the decline in support for the African National Congress (ANC) would continue in the next provincial and national elections‚ which take place in 2019.
He envisions that then‚ just like what happened after the August local government elections‚ the EFF would have the deciding vote of who will run government at a national and provincial level.
Instead of giving the vote to the Democratic Alliance (DA)‚ as the party did in the Johannesburg and Tshwane metros‚ Malema had a new proposal.
“My imagination of 2019 is such that the ANC goes below 50%‚ the EFF increases to 9% or 10%. The ANC needs the EFF‚ the DA needs the EFF. The first offer I am going to give to the ANC is the merger. The EFF and the ANC must come together and we collapse the name ANC. We close Luthuli House. We go and open the headquarters of this new party in Soweto‚ where our people are and then we start afresh‚” he told CheckPoint.
When asked who would he be willing to work in this envisioned new party‚ Malema replied: “I won’t mind working with [former president] Kgalema Motlanthe. I won’t mind working with Winnie Mandela. The merger will have to produce a unique leadership which will appeal to our people.
“The name ANC is going to remind our people of the painful past. We rather talk about the establishment of a new party completely. We all leave our history there‚ and this is the beginning of a new era.”
Since President Jacob Zuma became the face of the ANC‚ the ruling party has lost support — first due to the breakaway formation of the Congress of the People in 2008‚ and then came the EFF in 2013‚ which also took a share of backing from the ANC.
In the past‚ the idea of a merger with the ANC has been rejected by the EFF. The party even showed its posture on this matter when it partnered with the DA in metros describing the party as a “better devil” than the ANC. – TMG Digital
