Durban — Had the Umkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) not been formed, the EFF would have gained more support for the general elections as it was growing in KwaZulu-Natal, the stronghold of former president Jacob Zuma, said EFF senior leader Hlengiwe Mkhaliphi.
The former red beret deputy secretary general made the assertion during an interview with the Sunday Tribune as the party celebrates its 11-year journey. The party held its anniversary rally in Kimberley, Northern Cape, on Saturday. Mkhaliphi, who is a member of the central command team, said with factionalism widening within the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal, the EFF stood a good chance of getting support from the then-governing party’s disgruntled supporters. This factionalism within the ANC became glaring after President Cyril Ramaphosa had defeated Zuma’s faction, which backed Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma’s party presidential campaign at the 2017 ANC elective conference.
Mkhaliphi said ANC factionalism helped the EFF to win eight seats in 2019, up from the two it had won in 2014 in the KwaZulu-Natal parliament.
She said through disgruntled ANC supporters migrating in 2019, the EFF increased its MPs from the 24 it had had after the 2014 elections to 44 after the 2019 elections, “because KZN played a very important role in the national election”.
“Then in 2024, Zuma decided to form MKP, and because he is based in KZN he got support in KZN. We have declined by five seats, which was the decline of the EFF in KZN because of the newly-formed MKP,” said Mkhaliphi.
The 11-year journey was not an easy one for the EFF as its leader, Julius Malema faced charges of chanting the “Kill the Boer” slogan and firing an assault rifle in public.
Malema and his deputy, Floyd Shivambu, have been accused of unduly benefiting from money from the now defunct bank VBS Mutual Bank. Criminal charges were opened against them last week by AfriForum.
The EFF was formed five months after the ANC had fired Malema and Shivambu for fomenting divisions and bringing the party into disrepute.
Mkhaliphi said the decision to form a new party was made after some consideration.
“We wanted to find out whether we should form an NGO or civil organisation to participate in the country’s politics, and then we agreed that we should form a political party called Economic Freedom in Our Lifetime, which ultimately became Economic Freedom Fighters,” she said.
Then Malema went back to Marikana, the crime scene where 34 Lonmin platinum mine workers were killed by police on August 16, 2012.
“The people joined us in numbers with excitement in the country, but we had to also contest elections in 2014 with not enough time to prepare. We were just a baby with no resources, and we were still introducing ourselves without policies contesting the election, which was hard.
“But we were so happy with the outcome of the 2014 elections because we got 25 seats – a four-month baby got 1.1 million votes,” she said.
Mkhaliphi said the party started to build its foundation in various provinces.
“The first appearance in KZN in 2014 was at the Glebelands Stadium, which had less than 1 000 people who attended the provincial election manifesto. KZN was the most difficult province to penetrate,” she said.
She said the EFF was not formed out of anger and disgruntlement about Malema and Shivambu being ousted from the ANC.
The main reason, she said, for forming the party was to push for the expropriation of land without compensation, which the ANC had adopted as one of its policies, but pushed back when the Malema-led radical ANCYL campaigned for its implementation.
“When we entered into Parliament in 2014, we introduced the motion of expropriation without compensation and campaigned for it. When the ANC did not agree, we reminded it that this was one of the resolutions, that we need to expropriate without compensation. Why now, when they have a chance in Parliament, do they not support that issue?” she asked.
The EFF’s poor performance in the last election had been linked to its call for the borders to be opened for African immigrants. But Mkhaliphi rejected this notion.
“For instance, no one could not remember [Operation] Dudula whose programmes were against Africans. Herman Mashaba went all out against open borders, but did not perform well as his party has only two seats in the national assembly. There is also the Patriotic Alliance.
“If people did not vote for us on that basis, why did these parties not win the elections?”
Mkhaliphi said the EFF’s next move would be to explain to South Africans that its support for open borders for African immigrants did not mean that people should be in the country undocumented. She said the EFF had not given up hope of becoming the governing party in the future. But for now, it would work together with its partners in the Black Progressive Caucus block as a robust opposition to the Government of National Unity (GNU). She said the GNU was tainted with cadre deployment in the government departments, and would teach voters about the importance of EFF.
“We must go to people to say, you know very well that if your employer is exploiting you, there is an organisation called EFF, but when it comes to voting, you don’t prioritise us,” said Mkhaliphi.
She said for Malema to announce last week that he would contest to retain his position as the commander-in-chief in December did not mean he wanted to be the president of the party for life.
“People (members) must decide, as there is no Constitution that says the president must be the president for life,” she said. When asked if Malema would accept a challenger, she said: “It is not up to the president, it is up to the delegates.”
Sunday Tribune