Ekurhuleni speaker defies perceptions about EFF politicians

When you meet Ekurhurleni speaker Nthabiseng Tshivhenga she does not meet the general expectations anyone might have of an Economic Freedom Fighter (EFF) politician.

No rough-and-tumble politics

There’s no rough-and-tumble politics about her. Tshivhenga is soft-spoken, enthusiastic and energetic at the same time – the kind of dynamite package voters expect from a political office bearer.

She lacks the airs and graces that become the trappings of office so often. Instead, she comes across as authentic, with a healthy dash of empathy.

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It’s refreshing. While it’s only been a month, she is clear about what she wants to achieve and equally realistic about the fact that South African politics can pull the rug out from under you in a matter of moments.

Ekurhuleni’s former mayor, Tania Campbell, and former speaker Raymond Dhlamini both became casualties this year. Tshivhenga didn’t expect to become speaker.

She said: ‘I was aware that there would be change in government. ‘The EFF wanted to be in the forefront of that change in bringing about the unity to ensure that stability returned and to ensure service delivery happened. But me being in this office, I didn’t foresee it. It just came as a big, big surprise for me.”

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Opportunity to make real change

But she has embraced it. She said: ‘It is where we will get an opportunity to see and make real change. It’s at the apex of service delivery because this is the speaker’s office. ‘We are able to hold the executive mayor and the MMCs accountable regardless of their political affiliation. We can hold the administration accountable.”

Tshivhenga plans to do exactly that. And as speaker, she holds tremendous power of oversight. She plans to use this to do good.

“I’ve always been this activist in my family. And politics allows us to have a broader impact to effect change at a larger scale.”

Tshivhenga will be starting with the less fortunate. She added that under the previous executive leadership in Ekurhuleni it was as if not much thought was spared for the poor and downtrodden.

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We need to take care of the city

Nevermind the potholes and service delivery challenges. She said: ‘There are so many poor white, black, coloured and Indian people in the city, and we need to take care of them.”

It’s one of her biggest personal missions while in office. A conversation with Tshivhenga disintegrates preconceived notions of what the EFF are about. Perhaps they are not the disruptive and pugnacious thugs that other politicians would have us believe.

Her calm, measured and passion-infused discussion is accentuated by a matter-of-fact bullet-point approach that frames everything she has to say.

She believes that the EFF speaks to a broader constituency than opponents would have the public believe. She said: ‘We need to accept that constituencies are not the same and we cannot prejudice certain constituencies because they don’t have similar needs.

But obviously there is a need to be pro-poor because their needs are more than the others.

“But it’s imperative that everyone’s constitutional rights are not transgressed. We need to ensure that if it is said in the bill of rights, everyone needs to have those rights, regardless of their political affiliation or the colour of their skin.”

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Tshivhenga mother to teens

Tshivhenga is a mother, too, and often speaks to her teenage children about activism and democracy. But they say she works too much.

“They say ‘mommy, we have not seen you in three days. This cannot happen’.” Cooking is also a fun pastime for Tshivhenga. Her offspring love it when she makes lasagne, but her personal favourites centre more around traditional food, like pap and a good piece of meat. Spinach had to become part of her diet due to anaemia.

Tshivhenga also plans to make a meal out of local government. She said she has no plans to aim for a provincial or parliamentary seat.

Instead, she wants to fix stuff on the ground. ‘There is still a lot of work to be done. And the gripe that I have with how local government runs is that it’s not professionalised.”

Tshivhenga wants to have a hand in changing that. ‘I don’t think I’ll be moving out of it anytime soon,” she said.