Youth will make EFF the next government – Shivambu

Spurred by the fact that the majority of those who registered during the last round of voter registration last weekend were young, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has boldly claimed it will win the 2019 elections and become the next governing party.

The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) announced that more than 700 000 new voters registered during the January 26-27 window, with 81% younger than 30.

This has given the EFF, whose constituency majority is the youth, impetus to launch its manifesto with a promise to create jobs for the youth and to change South Africa’s economic landscape.

It further promised to continue to fight for the poor, while influencing positive change in SA.

The EFF entered the national election race for the first time in 2014 and surprised many by winning 6.4% of the votes and becoming the third-biggest party in the country.

EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu was upbeat about their chances in the May 2019 national elections, claiming the party would become the next government – something that many saw as too ambitious.

He said in an SABC interview: “After the May [2019] election the EFF will more certainly be in government and providing direction on what has been the failures of the liberation movement [ANC].”

Shivambu said the EFF manifesto, to be launched in Soshanguve, north of Pretoria, tomorrow, would give commitments with a clear timeframe.

It would unveil the “clearest practical programme of action” for the next five years, while continuing what they started in 2014.

Shivambu claimed the EFF was the first to fight for fee-free and decolonised education, and the introduction of the policy on land expropriation without compensation. It also tabled the Reserve Bank Amendment Bill, Insourcing of All-Government Workers Bill, National Health Amendment Bill and a variety of other legislation.

According to Shivambu, the youth vote will boost the EFF’s chances of taking power in May.

“The youth are not tied and arrested to the liberation politics. All the voters below the age of 40 are people who never got to experience apartheid.

“If the voting age was up until the age of 40, the ANC [would] lose dismally – that component on the voters’ roll is more than 50% of the SA voters and that is a decisive number,” Shivambu said.

“Even the statistics show the EFF is the only growing party … because it is inspiring confidence in many South Africans.

“In the 2016 local government elections … other parties, including the ANC and DA, declined,” he said. “We need to change course by giving the EFF a chance to do things differently.”

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