‘EFF won’t enter any coalition’ – treasurer-general

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) is not open to negotiation with any party to establish a post-election coalition because they aim to oust the ANC and take over power.

This was a bold statement by EFF treasurer-general and MP Omphile Maotwe, who said a coalition with the ANC or any other party was not on the table.

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Maotwe said the EFF would oust President Cyril Ramaphosa and fill the vacancy left by former speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, come the 29 May general election.

This amid persistent rumours that the ANC was eyeing the EFF as the first choice to negotiate with for a coalition should the ruling party lose its majority, currently standing at 57%.

‘ANC will lose’

However, Maotwe has a different view because she believes the ANC will lose.

“We have not entered the elections to partner with anyone. We paid money, we paid resources, we are campaigning on a daily basis, we want to take over this country,” she said.

“When the EFF was formed, it was never formed to be friends with anyone but we were formed to liberate our people and emancipate them from slavery, inequalities and from high levels of unemployment.

“We are in this to win it, we can’t enter a race to be number two or to be assisted by anyone.”

In an interview with The Citizen, Maotwe was confident EFF leader Julius Malema would be elected as the country’s president and that an EFF speaker would replace Mapisa-Nqakula after the elections.

“Our people are going to vote for us to bring about change in this country,” she said.

However, the ANC also appears confident of an outright victory in May.

Party deputy president Paul Mashatile recently said the ANC would retain the majority, a view shared by a fellow ANC member and functionary, who preferred to remain anonymous.

The member estimated the ANC’s performance at 55%, not below 50% as envisaged by the opposition parties, political analysts and some surveys.

She said the response to the ANC campaign trail was overwhelming, while the campaign itself was gaining momentum throughout the country.

“We think we will do well. Let them say what they want to say, but the ANC will win,” the member said.

Maotwe, who served on the parliamentary portfolio committee on public enterprises that performed oversight function over Malema’s nemesis, Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan, said the EFF would fight for a new speaker, who would not be from the ANC.

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“We will not have the speaker from the ANC after 29 May because we are going to remove the ANC from power.

“The members of parliament will elect a new speaker from the EFF because we are taking over this government.”

Previously, some senior ANC members opposed any future coalition with the EFF, while none of the Democratic Alliance-led Multi-Party Charter for SA members were interested in flirting with the EFF, leaving it in political isolation.

ANC veterans even suggested cooperation with the DA, a move some analysts considered good for the country’s stability.

But the ANC rank and file and left-leaning members are against the DA and prefer the party to have the EFF on its side as it was the closest, ideologically.

However, some analysts said the ANC was as close to the EFF as it was to the DA due to its neoliberal policies.

The enmity between the ANC and EFF was even more pronounced in the City of Ekurhuleni, where the ANC recently supported an ActionSA motion to oust EFF mayor Sivuyile Ngodwana.

The two parties are fast drifting away from each other in Gauteng.