LESEGO SECHABA MOGOTSI
Cape Town - For several weeks I have been thinking of writing an unsolicited article on what appears to be Julius Malema’s steady rise to power and the electoral support the EFF continues to enjoy within black communities.
Just to recap: The EFF’s electoral support at national level has shown growth from zero to 6.35% in 2014, and to 10.79% in the 2019 national and provincial elections.
In the past two local government elections, in 2016 and 2021, the EFF has also shown a rise in electoral support, from 8.31% to 10.54% respectively.
It is this EFF upward electoral trajectory, more especially within the black communities, that makes me envious of the support Malema and the EFF command.
Between February and December last year, I shared my intention to write this article on the EFF’s growing electoral support with my acquaintances and comrades.
One comrade bemoaned the fact the article will based on the EFF’s electoral support growth, rather than the dwindling electoral support for Azapo, which happens to be my political home.
My response was quite short, simple and straightforward: “My Tower, only if Azapo had similar electoral support ... ”
As I have previously indicated in various articles that I have written on the EFF and their continued antics in Parliament, I am one of those South Africans who do not believe that the usual screaming, howling and heckling that we have become accustomed to since the arrival of the EFF in municipal councils, provincial legislatures and Parliament have helped to fundamentally change the lives of our people, as Comrade Pandelani Nefolovhodwe would say. Neither did this help to sharpen the contradictions between the post-apartheid and the apartheid-colonial parliaments.
Some of our people, especially the downtrodden, vulnerable and poor in villages and townships, continue to see municipal councils, provincial legislatures and Parliament as some form of legitimate money-making and self-serving scheme for politicians.
Let me get back to the reasons why I envy Malema’s – and by extension the EFF’s – growing electoral support across the land. In the last national and provincial elections in 2019, which can be used as a barometer to test a political party’s ability to take over the Union Buildings and become a governing party, the EFF obtained 1.8 million votes.
This represented 10.79% of the eligible voters in South Africa. Although the EFF and Malema’s electoral and personal support does not meet the required threshold to take over the country, except through coalition governments and/ or agreements, it is certainly a good foundation for the EFF.
Is it possible for all of us to imagine the direct impact Malema and the EFF can make if they use their electoral support consistently in the positive direction, and if they re-direct their energies to the projects/programmes that seek to fundamentally change the lives of black communities – such as focusing on the much-neglected psychological liberation, crime prevention, restoration of black people’s dignity, advancing black economic control, ownership, etc.
However, as things stand, the strategies and tactics employed by the EFF in various municipal councils, provincial legislatures, and Parliament are not good enough for the electorate to entrust them with an exclusive mandate to take over the Union Buildings without governing partners.
This is not being anti-black or being anti-revolutionary, as some people would say.
The EFF still has a long way to go to position themselves as an alternative and trusted government in waiting.
The electoral support and successes of the DA and Action SA in the local government elections in 2021 can be attributed to some of the questionable EFF politics.
Besides the introduction of the red berets, overalls and gumboots in municipal councils, provincial legislatures and Parliament, the EFF has not been able to successfully demonstrate to the majority of the electorate that they can be exclusively trusted with judicial, legislative and executive power. Perhaps, I am being too harsh and unfair on a nine-year-old political party.
However, they would at least be pleased to know that there is someone who envies their electoral support out there, even though he does not agree with their general politics.
There is also a general view in some quarters, since the formation of the EFF, that Malema has continued to treat the EFF as his personal project, and that he tends to focus too much on the ANC factional battles and politics.
As we begin 2023 and look to the all-important national and provincial elections in May 2024, the biggest question is whether Malema and the EFF will change their strategies and tactics in time, or will they stick to their usual ways and put their hopes on taking control of the Union Buildings through the back door – coalition governments and/or agreements?
In some media reports, some of the voters – during interviews – have already indicated they have lost hope in the municipal councils, provincial legislatures and Parliament, and they can’t wait for the term of the current administrations to expire. It is also worrying that some of these voters are threatening to boycott any future elections as they see elections as a mere replacement of another uncaring and self-serving group of public representatives with another group for the next five years.
If Malema, the EFF and their supporters do not appreciate the electoral support they have in black communities and the growth thereof, there are political parties such as the Azanian People’s Organisation (Azapo) that would surely appreciate such electoral support for the greater benefit of humanity and for us to achieve what Steve Biko envisaged: “ ... [to] be in a position to bestow on South Africa the greatest possible gift – a more human face.”
Mogotsi is a member of the Azanian People’s Organisation (Azapo) and is based in Tshwane, Gauteng.
Cape Times
** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of Independent Media or IOL.