EFF wants kingmaker role after elections

WHILE other political parties have their eyes on the first prize, which is to win the elections with an outright majority, the EFF is aiming to be the kingmaker in Nelson Mandela Bay to ensure that neither the ANC nor the DA can make decisions without its support.

With only 10 weeks to go before the hotly contested August 3 municipal elections, political parties have hit the campaign trail hard, hosting rallies and events to woo Bay voters.

The EFF, on the other hand, has been somewhat reclusive in Nelson Mandela Bay, only displaying its mass support at events attended by its national leaders.

This, by no means, is an indication that the party is not a force to be reckoned with, according to Eastern Cape spokeswoman Yoliswa Yako.

“You might not see us in the newspapers, but we are busy in the wards. We are on the ground, in each ward, every day,” she said.

“The response has been positive. People are so excited about the EFF.

“When we’re just walking around at a shopping mall wearing our red berets, people come up to us and ask for membership forms.”

The party has spent the past couple of months holding meetings with its branches to select councillor candidates for each of the metro’s 60 wards.

“All 60 wards will be contested,” Yako said.

“We have spent quite a lot of time ensuring that each branch elects the people it wants, so that they don’t say the people have been imposed on them.

“We want quality leaders and to ensure we do the process properly.”

She said the mayoral candidate would be chosen by the party’s national bosses.

“We don’t have a mayoral candidate yet. We’re still discussing if we’re going to have one, but we don’t know anything. “It’s for the national leaders to decide.” In the 2014 national and provincial elections – only months after the EFF was formed – it garnered about 4.3% of the votes in the Bay.

Yako said the EFF stood a pretty good chance of getting a significant share of the votes in August.

“We are aiming for a stake to play a pivotal role in terms of decisions in the council,” she said.

“We don’t want the ANC or the DA to win the majority. We want to be key in terms of the decision-making.”

Political analyst Joleen Steyn-Kotze said some of the smaller political parties, such as the EFF, could play an important role in the Bay’s political landscape.

“Many people in poor communities have not necessarily seen an improvement in the quality of their lives and still struggle with basic housing, electricity, water, and sanitation,” she said.

“In this context, I found that youth voters feel the ANC needs opposition to its dominant rule.

“They indicated a wide variety of parties that they will potentially vote for, including the EFF, but their minds are not made up yet.”

She said she believed that should either the ANC or the DA fail to get an outright majority win, the EFF would become the proverbial kingmaker.

EFF leader Julius Malema will campaign in the Bay on Sunday.