More EFF members expected to jump ship - expert
Professor of politics at North-West University, Piet Croucamp, believes the EFF will continue to bleed members.
The EFF’s first national chairperson, Advocate Dali Mpofu, announced his departure from the party on Thursday morning.
He has joined the uMkhonto weSizwe Party, following the likes of EFF co-founder Floyd Shivambu and MPs Busisiwe Mkhwebane and Mzwanele Manyi.
In a post on social media X, EFF leader Julius Malema alluded to two other high-profile members who could be on their way out of the party.
Only two more of your favourites remain, and the list will be finalised. They sing beautifully and are always willing to pose for pictures and sign roll calls, but remember, their souls are long gone. To prevent any potential hurt, it’s crucial to heed the guidance of the…
— Julius Sello Malema (@Julius_S_Malema) November 7, 2024
Croucamp believes the next two people who will jump ship are Carl Niehaus and Mbuyiseni Ndlozi.
"I think the other person he [Malema] might be talking about is Carl Niehaus. I don't think he trusts Carl at all, and Carl is a much more natural fit because he's got this MK history behind him. He's a very close confidant of Jacob Zuma.
"Everybody knows the moment there is a paid position open at MK. Carl Niehaus will jump ship, but the only problem with MK is that it doesn't have paid positions for all the people that want to walk over.
“For the ANC, they must be very, very concerned because they know that in the provincial executive committee of the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal, but also in Gauteng, there are a number of their leadership who would walk over to MK any day.
"They want a similar position to the one that they have in the ANC, and as it is, the MK is just too small a party now to make provision for all of them in their structures.”
Croucamp said the influx of high-profile members to the MK Party bodes well for the local government elections in 2026.
"If you start to make projections into what will happen in the local government election in 2026, surely MK is on a roll. They are a growing party, and there are real reasons to be concerned about where they could go to as far as the ANC is concerned in Mpumalanga and in Gauteng. But for the EFF, I think the berets are jumping ship."
Croucamp warned that the MK Party poses an existential threat to the EFF.
"I'm not sure they (MKP) will take over the EFF, but they will certainly tap into a lot of the leadership, and the other thing is, ideologically, they will occupy the space that the EFF is occupied, but in a different, almost more meaningful manner.
"The idea of politicians in red overalls that are young, claiming to be revolutionaries didn't really work well in South Africa, especially amongst the older population. We have a much higher regard for MK, MK has got that age-old type of aura to it.
"It can be associated, really associated, with MK because of Jacob Zuma's prominence there. I just think they occupy, ideologically occupy, a much more prominent space. They're much more a natural fit for politics on the left in South Africa.
"The EFF will be exposed for something that was a temporary hold on many South Africans that became the solution to the liberation struggle and the ANC, that was a political home for them, it was temporary, now the real McCoy has arrived on the block."
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