EFF may be caught in no-win situation in race for Joburg mayor

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) will have to roll the dice to decide whether to support the Democratic Alliance (DA) or the ANC if its attempt to contest the vacant Johannesburg mayor’s seat fails – unless it abstains completely from the race, a political expert says.

Dr Ralph Mathekga said the EFF had a dilemma.

It would face criticism for supporting either the DA or the ANC should its candidate not win.

Therefore, it has one option – to abstain and hand Johannesburg over to the ANC.

The EFF has decided to field its own mayoral candidate, hoping for support from either the governing DA or opposition ANC.

However, such support may not be forthcoming because all three parties are interested in the hot seat, to be vacated by Herman Mashaba, who is expected to officially resign on Thursday.

If the EFF loses the race, it will have to support a candidate from either party to form a new coalition government.

But if that happens, EFF leader Julius Malema and his youthful party face public criticism for backtracking on their boldly stated undertaking not to vote with either in the metros.

The EFF might choose a side, hoping to get a share of the executive seats from the winning party as a reward.

Certainly, even if the Red Berets decide to abstain, the ANC would reclaim the metro from the DA.

There is a possibility the ANC could decide not to contest the mayoral post in favour of the EFF – as it did with the United Democratic Movement (UDM) in Nelson Mandela Bay metro.

The City of Joburg has been run by a coalition comprising the DA, EFF, Congress of the People, Inkatha Freedom Party, African Christian Democratic Party and the Freedom Front Plus since the 2016 election.

Mathekga said: “The EFF may not be able to reach out to the DA, given recent political scandals and leadership change in the DA [and] the perceived castigation of black leaders in the DA.”

An ANC-EFF coalition would be publicly labelled as the “return of grand theft”, given the EFF had earlier committed to remove the ANC.

“The EFF is in a dilemma, they might as well roll the dice to decide this one,” Mathekga said.

The DA’s candidate is Funzela “Funzi” Ngobeni, current MMC for finance.

Some within the ANC have touted the name of the party’s Greater Johannesburg regional chairperson and former MMC for finance Geoff Makhubo.

In terms of the Municipal Structures Act, when three candidates contest and it results in a run-off election, the council should have successive rounds of voting.

For the two rounds, the candidate with the least votes drops out until the winner is declared.

The DA’s James Selfe was confident the EFF candidate would lose, leaving the race between the DA and ANC candidates.

“This leaves the EFF with an important decision, whether they support the DA multiparty coalition’s candidate or the ANC, whose only intention is to reverse the progress made since 2016.”

He said the vote was critical for the future of Johannesburg as the metro should not go the Nelson Mandela Bay route, where the ANC, EFF and UDM were in a coalition.

“In Nelson Mandela Bay, communities are experiencing firsthand the damage that can be done when the EFF make the choice to sit on their hands and give the keys to the city back to the ANC,” Selfe said.

Neither the ANC, nor EFF could be reached for comment on the mayoral election.

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