EFF president Julius Malema has rejected being involved in a Government of National Unity (GNU) proposed by ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa last week.
Ramaphosa addressed the media, saying the ANC is going into a GNU and invited all willing parties to participate in the proposed multiparty government.
In what has been the ANC’s most dismal performance in the history of democratic elections since 1994, the party could only garner just over 40% of the vote.
The red berets’ deputy president Floyd Shivambu maintained Malema’s stance that the party, which was ousted in its third spot by the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP), will not join a multiparty government if the DA and the VF Plus are involved, saying the two parties represent racial oppression.
Shivambu was addressing the media at the EFF’s central elections task force and central command team meeting on Friday.
The top brass of the EFF held a caucus meeting to deliberate on coalitions and a follow-up election report.
“We are not going to form part of any governance with the DA. We are not going to sit alongside the DA and VF Plus, the land thieves, the people who had benefited unlawfully from colonialism and apartheid.
“We are not going to constitute a government with them. If the ANC wants to choose that route, they can go ahead with what they did in 1994. The EFF is not desperate for positions in government,” said Shivambu.
Shivambu clarified that the EFF would heed Ramaphosa’s proposal, without the DA and VF Plus in a broad coalition.
Shivambu furthermore said the MKP deserves to govern Kwa-Zulu-Natal because the novice party scored the most votes, followed by the IFP in second place.
Moreover, the public, especially on social media, in particular “X” has continuously alluded to the EFF as a flip-flopper party.
“This is the reason voters don’t trust the EFF. They always flip-flop. The EFF formed a coalition with the DA to dislodge the ANC… Tomorrow, the EFF will be prostituting themselves to the DA,” said a user on “X”.
According to EyeWitness News, just a year ago Malema told BBC he supported a GNU, seeing South Africa’s political environment might move to coalitions.
“We need a government of national unity constituted by all of us who are not driven by the interest of political parties, but by the interests of South Africa,” he said at the time.
But the EFF made a swift turn vocalising their ill support of a GNU.
The EFF has shown flip-flopping tendencies by sharing a bed with the DA during the 2016 local government elections.
During that year, the EFF wanted a position in Gauteng’s metros by eyeing Tshwane for mayorship and Joburg’s mayoral committee in order to clean up the ANC’s municipal malpractices.
This led to a DA and EFF marriage, thus the disowned child of the DA Herman Mashaba was elected City of Joburg mayor.
“Being neutral was not an option. A revolutionary can never be neutral. We’re not in positions, there is no alliance or special committee to manage here. We are caught between the two devils and had to choose a better devil. We had to take sides, if we were wrong… This is history, let history judge us,” said Malema referencing an online publication, Polity.
Furthermore, the DA also rejected the EFF and the MK’s involvement in a GNU, emphasising an alliance of these parties and the ANC as a sacrifice to democracy and a “Doomsday Coalition”, DA leader John Steenhuisen said.
Henceforth, the DA sent its top members to engage with other parties that want to commit to a GNU. The top DA members include Helen Zille, Siviwe Gwarube, and Alan Winde.
Professor of the University of London Adam Habib had said to Newzroom Afrika that a marriage of the MKP, EFF and ANC foresees political instability.
“I have said publicly, an alliance with the EFF and MKP is a dangerous alliance. The EFF is a facetious party, it has rigid ideas, it is violence prone and it would undermine (SA’s) long-term economic stability, it is also deeply corrupt,” Habib said.
The Star