EFF leader Julius Malema during a press briefing at their headquarters, Winnie Mandela House, in Gandhi Square, 23 August 2022. Picture: Neil McCartney / The Citizen
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) is open to entering into a coalition agreement with the ANC after the 2024 general elections.
However, the red berets would prefer ANC treasurer-general Paul Mashatile to lead the governing party.
That’s according to EFF leader Julius Malema, who told News24 that his party was opposed to working with the Democratic Alliance (DA) to unseat the ANC from national government.
With no political party expected to win an outright majority in the 2024 polls to form a government, Malema said the EFF did not want to have DA leader John Steenhuisen as South Africa’s next president.
“The ANC in 2024 needs a radical leftist coalition [partner] that will force its hand and say if you don’t push this direction, you will likely get John Steenhuisen as president, the same way you have these mayors in Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni, and Tshwane,” the EFF leader was quoted as saying.
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Malema said the EFF was “being forced to choose the better evil” in the form of the ANC, but did not want President Cyril Ramaphosa to have a second term in office as the ANC’s leader because he apparently “hates black people”.
He said the EFF was projecting to receive around 20 to 25% of the national vote in the 2024 elections, but they would have to work with the ANC first, before removing the party from power.
“For as long as you don’t have numbers, you will be forced to go around kissing different frogs to arrive where you want to go,” Malema said.
In the previous 2019 national elections, the EFF received 10.8% of the vote while the ANC claimed 57.5% of the electoral support – reflecting the party’s worst performance in any general election.
The DA, on the other hand, received 20.8% of the vote.
As the ANC prepares to elect new leaders at its much anticipated national conference in December, Malema said Mashatile would be a better president than Ramaphosa.
The ANC treasurer-general is among a string of senior ANC leaders, including Justice Minister Ronald Lamola, who are expected to contest the deputy presidency of the ANC at the conference.
Nominations for the ANC’s leadership race are expected to open in the first week of September.
Malema further clarified that the EFF, as an opposition party, was committed to unseating the ANC from power, but believed that the EFF could “use the ANC to destroy itself”.
Compiled by Thapelo Lekabe
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