The EFF is placing its hat in the ring and wants to co-govern with the ANC. Photographer: Henk Kruger / Independent Newspapers
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) said on Saturday it would be keen to co-govern with the African National Congress (ANC) but there are conditions.
The EFF said that it would form a coalition with the ANC only if the DA and FF Plus were kept out of this coalition group.
The party, led by Julius Malema made these desires following a bilateral meeting held on the June 28, 2024 in Johannesburg.
"The EFF is willing to constitute and participate in an ANC-led government together with other parties, with the exception of the Democratic Alliance and Freedom Front Plus," EFF’s secretary general Marshall Dlamini said.
Dlamini addressed his letter to the ANC’s secretary-general, Fikile Mbalula and said that that the EFF was committed to the rule of law, supremacy of the Constitution, anti-corruption, accountability and transparency.
Dlamini said that the ANC and EFF could co-govern and hit the ground running.
On why the EFF would not work with the DA and EFF, Dlamini said that these two parties represented the imperialist, counter-revolutionary, white supremacist agenda.
Dlamini further reminded the ANC that the DA openly wrote to “imperialist” United States of America to interfere and supervise South Africa's democratic elections.
He argued that this undermined SA’s sovereignty and insulted the country’s collective intelligence.
Dlamini called for a statement of intent between the EFF and ANC and said such an agreement would mean that the EFF acknowledged the ANC as leader of the government.
“Such an agreement, or statement of intent must necessarily include key principles informed by the strategic objective of the total liberation of the oppressed as encapsulated in the Freedom Charter and Progressive Internationalism,” he added.
“The agreement, or statement of intent must also necessarily include the principles of redress and equality as captured in Section 9.2 of the Constitution which states that ‘to promote the achievement of equality, legislative and other measures designed to protect or advance persons, or categories of persons, disadvantaged by unfair discrimination may be taken," Dlamini added.
He also noted that the agreement must translate into provincial and municipal governments with the aim of government stability and accelerated quality service delivery.
“We give our assurance and guarantee that we shall never work with the DA in any sphere of government to remove the ANC from power where it is elected as leader of the executive or legislature”.
“We are willing to participate in any executive as long as the DA and FF Plus are not included and affirm the principle that the President and or Premiers have the prerogative to determine the composition of the executive after consultation with the EFF leadership,” he emphasised.
The EFF further expressed their desire to find representation in all the clusters of national government, as ministers or deputies.
“We also are willing to take leadership in legislatures in the form of speaker or deputy speakers, and chairpersons of portfolio committees. We would like to state that we are not in the mission to pursue cabinet positions for careerist purposes. We seek participation that will bring meaningful and historic change to the lives of the oppressed and the people of South Africa as a whole,” Dlamini added added.
"We conclusively advise that the ANC must not work or co-govern with the DA and FF Plus in the interest of its historic mission. This, the ANC must do, even if it believes that the EFF is not its preferred partner," Dlamini said.
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