Endumeni will formally have the new Mayor inaugurated on Thursday in the Council Chamber and indications are that the status quo will remain with the ANC and EFF going into coalition.

The elections results left Endumeni with a ‘hung’ Council – six ANC seats, four IFP, two DA and one EFF.  Despite announcements from the EFF that they would never deal with the ANC, that appears to have changed.

The EFF has had “an open door policy from the beginning” and was speaking to all parties, including the ANC, about possible coalitions in municipalities, party spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi said.

He told journalists ahead of the EFF’s central command team meeting in Braamfontein on Monday night that the party had many options on the table, including coalitions, abstentions and re-runs, but added:

“Be very clear, the EFF is not going to sell its identity to anyone – its identity is not up for sale.”

Ahead of the elections the EFF had said it would not let the ANC “into the back door”, but Ndlozi said circumstances were now different to the adversarial conditions before the elections. He also said the party was talking to “white monopoly capital”, which is understood to include the DA.

Patience

Ndlozi said the party had been talking to all the other parties, and leaders involved in the negotiations would be consulting leaders from provinces, who would in turn go back and talk to their local structures.