Leading political analyst Goodenough Mashego argues that the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) needs to adopt a pro-pan Africanist posture as it failed to show its ability to govern anywhere, and that it will never win a municipality or lead one, but rather secure only councillors seats.
Mashego made the comments, as the party prepares for its third National People’s Assembly conference, set to be held at Naserec Expo Centre, Johannesburg from 12 to 15 December.
EFF’s national spokesperson Leigh-Ann Mathys recently told IOL that the nominations for positions, including the one of deputy president after Floyd Shivambu’s exit to MK party will only be determined at the conference.
“We currently do not know. As you know, nominations are made from the floor during the conference. It is only in that moment, during the nomination process itself, that we will know,” Mathys said.
Mathys denied that the party is ‘bleeding’ from losing prominent members, many of whom joined MK Party.
“There is no wave of resignations from our organisation to the MK party,” she said.
Mathys confirmed that the National People's Assembly (NPA), will focus on the party’s performance in the last five years and adopt resolutions aimed at accelerating electoral growth.
“The Central Command Team will convene a plenum to ensure the immediate implementation of the resolutions passed at the conference,” she told IOL News.
Mathy said from the critical platform they will engage in formulating strategies for the upcoming 2026 local government elections.
However, political analyst, Goodenough Mashego, expressed scepticism about the party’s prospects, argued the party will never win any municipality.
“The EFF will never win a municipality. There’s no municipality that the EFF will ever win and govern,” he said.
Mashego said he believes the party will only remain “a spoiler” in most municipalities across the country, but will never govern any.
“There will be councillors and maybe somewhere they might even be kingmakers, which means they want to appoint some its directors or managers, but they will never win a municipality,” Mashego told IOL.
Recently, the red berets secured three seats that the Thabazimbi local municipality, with 13.32% following the by-elections.
The ANC garnered high percentage of votes, with 39%, securing 10 council seats, it fell short of the 12 seats needed to govern independently, while the Democratic Alliance (DA) bagged 16%, making it the official opposition with four seats.
Over the past years the EFF has secured seats at big metros such as the City of Johannesburg, City of Tshwane, and in 2021 it won a mayoral seat at the Meetsimaholo municipality in the Free State, among others.
But, Mashego suggested that as the party heads to the elective conference it should let go the dream of winning a municipalities, but focus on increasing its councillors count.
“This is because they will end up putting a lot of resources and trying to win something that they can’t win,” he said.
“They need to be realistic. If they have two councillors and there are 32 wards, they should target one or two more,” he said.
Mashego said the party needs to use data analysis to focus on vulnerable wards, where they have better chances.
“They need to use the data analysis strategy to look at the municipalities, voting patterns, where they perform better, who perform better where, who perform worst, which wards are vulnerable and they must go those wards,” he said.
Mashego added that he believes the EFF needs to adop a pro-pan Africanist stance, to show its deeper understanding on governance.
“The EFF is no longer a strong opposition party and it has not indicated any ability to govern anywhere. Where they do govern they mess up the municipalities,” Mashego said.
IOL Politics