EFF acts as warrior for the wounded in bid to divide ANC
The EFF has a grand new strategy, and it’s a smart one: split the ANC by becoming the champion of the aggrieved and corrupt in its ranks.
The latest sign of this is a letter it has sent to all board members of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) that fall under the Department of Public Enterprises offering assistance to those adversely affected by the clean-out by Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan.
“We urge all affected persons to continue bringing their concerns to the organisational and parliamentary offices of the EFF,” it says after accusing Gordhan of a “reign of terror”.
The letter specifically takes up the case of Transnet CE Siyabonga Gama, saying it believes Gordhan intends to instruct the company’s board to suspend him “without due process and reason”.
The EFF also spoke out last week on behalf of the director-general of public enterprises Richard Seleke, who has reached an agreement to leave the government but who Floyd Shivambu says is another Gordhan victim.
It is true that Gordhan is energetically cleaning out. Gama stands accused of being party to massive inflations of a contract for locomotives, and of ensuring firms that should have been excluded from Transnet rail procurements remained unfairly. This was the same contract in which Gupta cronies scored billions in kickbacks. Seleke, a former Free State official brought in by former minister Lynne Brown, also has state-capture questions to answer at the Zondo commission.
The EFF letter offering political cover to unhappy directors of SOEs would not be worth worrying about had it not followed several other instances in which the party has sprung to the defence of the ANC’s disgruntled, now on the back foot under a Cyril Ramaphosa regime.
It has come out to vociferously defend suspended South African Revenue Service (SARS) commissioner Tom Moyane, arguing without any basis in law that the SARS commission of inquiry has been set up unfairly. The EFF also lobbied the Reserve Bank and the Treasury not to put VBS Mutual Bank under curatorship, and came out in support of the Public Investment Corporation’s investment in Iqbal Surve’s Ayo group, a transaction regarded by the rest of the market with high suspicion.
So while the DA has struggled to find its raison d’étre now that the Jacob Zuma bogeyman has left the political stage, the EFF has quickly found a new cause.
The fault line between the new Ramaphosa order and the Zuma fight-back campaign is deep; by exploiting it the EFF strengthens the fight back and weakens Ramaphosa. It also positions itself as a player in the ANC’s own drama, a political faction for hire, if you like, or political cover for sale.
There is another dimension to the EFF bid to split the ANC, which at least has a legitimate ideological slant. Although generally a nationalist party, the ANC has always had various strands within it. While nonracialism is the official line of the party, there is a strong Africanist undercurrent fed by the frustration that in several areas of politics and many areas of the economy black Africans are still dominated by whites and Indians.
It is an undercurrent that is particularly evident among the ANC’s deployees in government and SOEs.
In the Zuma era this sentiment was tapped by the toxic racial nationalism of Mzwanele Manyi and Andile Mngxitama. With them gone, the EFF has stepped into that space. So, in the EFF’s book, Gordhan’s clean-out, and the efforts to do the same by Ismail Momoniat in the Treasury, are not in the interests of SA but are racial tyranny and domination inflicted on Africans.
The EFF’s rant against Indians that followed Shivambu’s extraordinary attack on Momoniat was met with a strong repudiation by the ANC, but the truth is that these sentiments do find traction, especially among the emerging middle class.
Put this strategy to split the ANC together with Shivambu’s statements last week that come 2019, the EFF will move into government itself and an interesting scenario begins to take shape.
Ramaphosa’s efforts to subdue the Zuma faction and consolidate his position as ANC head are undermined. The EFF can position itself to win particular outcomes or positions in the government after 2019 using the natural allies in the Zuma camp and those aggrieved and dislodged by the Ramaphosa victory.
The impact on the bigger picture could be profound: divisions would widen in the ANC. And the DA, which now holds power in Johannesburg and Tshwane on the basis of EFF support, could be out in the cold.
THE EFF POSITIONS ITSELF AS A PLAYER IN THE ANC’S OWN DRAMA, A POLITICAL FACTION FOR HIRE , IF YOU LIKE, OR POLITICAL COVER FOR SALE