ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula has come out in public opposition to “any considerations of the ANC entering into a coalition with the EFF” after next year’s elections, should the ANC dip below 50% voter support.
Mbalula on Saturay said the ANC needs to review its coalition agreements with the EFF in Gauteng municipalities.
He told a youth league gathering that the ANC “marriage” with the EFF, especially in Johannesburg, did not make sense as the EFF’s mission was to ensure the ANC lost elections.
Mbalula accused the EFF of working with those who were hell-bent on ensuring the ANC loses its majority in next year's general election.
The ANC would rather, Mbalula said, go into a coalition with its known enemy, the DA.
“We must, as the ANC, review this marriage we have with them here in Johannesburg, we must,” said Mbalula. “We can’t go with people who want to see us out of power. We’d rather go with the DA, fully aware that here’s the enemy and then when we meet them after the election that will be it.”
The ANC and the EFF are in power through a marriage of convenience in several Gauteng municipalities including Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni, Mogale City and the West Rand.
The two parties agreed that neither would occupy the mayorship in any of these municipalities but rather share the spoils of MMC positions.
His remarks came a day after EFF leader Julius Malema held what he said was a frank discussion with editors in which he attacked Mbalula, calling him self-centred.
Malema said Mbalula was only about himself and no-one else.
What seems to have angered Mbalula was Malema labelling Nas’ iSpani, the employment drive by Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi, a “criminal activity of the ANC and Panyaza because it’s hiring those campaigners of the ANC”.
According to Mbalula, Malema continues to attack the ANC at any given opportunity, yet the ANC keeps begging him to keep it in power, especially in Johannesburg.
So adamant was Mbalula about reviewing the coalition agreement that he told the youth league event he would ensure the ANC leadership discusses it.
“We must review that marriage and we’ll table it in the ANC ... we’ll look at what do we stand to benefit from this. Politically, we are being assaulted here and that is what is important. We must understand, the ANC majority is the biggest threat to our enemies. They want us down, comrades, they want us below 50%. They are assisted by these ones [EFF],” he said.
Mbalula sought to quell suggestions that the ANC was likely to offer the EFF the deputy president position as part of its coalition negotiations should it dip below 50%.
He said Malema can “only dream” of occupying the highest office on land.
“And there are comrades who are flirting with him about our organisation. That’s what makes him think that he can tell us what to do. A 10% political party wants to tell us what to do in this country,” said Mbalula.
“And then he sees Union Buildings in his dreams ... He will be in the Union Buildings — in his dreams.”
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