EFF’S economic pillars ‘shaky’
A report by the Institute of Race Relations tore into the party’s principles, although author Ivo Vegter also said it had legitimate grievances
The Economic Freedom Fighters’ (EFF) non-negotiable economic pillars have been criticised for being “fragile and evanescent as a sand castle against a rising tide”, according to a report by the Institute of Race Relations (IRR).
The report was released on Tuesday, after the EFF’S election manifesto launch over the weekend. Written by Ivo Vegter, a researcher and a columnist for the IRR’S newspaper the Daily Friend, the report said the party’s approach to economic freedom relied on populist measures and impractical policies rather than on “principles of economic theory and empirical evidence”.
But during a webinar for the launch of the report, Vegter also said that although the EFF was often characterised as “one-dimensional”, it was not superficial. Some of the party’s grievances were legitimate.
The IRR is a research and policy think-tank that describes itself as promoting classical liberalism through non-racialism, a market economy and property rights. The IRR is also linked to Democratic Alliance (DA) federal chairperson Helen Zille, who in 2019 joined the think-tank to contribute to its research on the EFF’S land position, which calls for expropriation without compensation.
When EFF leader Julius Malema announced in 2013 that he would be forming the EFF, his stance on land gained him popularity. Many of the party’s followers had criticised the ANC for failing to return the land to its rightful owners despite being in power for more than 20 years.
During the webinar, Vegter said the party’s stance on land violated private property rights. “That it will do this without compensation is problematic. Land that has been legally acquired, by purchase or inheritance, is private property. To deprive people of that property is morally wrong.”
He said the EFF’S emphasis on the nationalisation of key industries, land expropriation without compensation and a blanket increase in social welfare spending overlooked the complexities of economic dynamics, which could lead to detrimental consequences for the country.
Nationalisation of these critical industries has failed, with the country’s state-owned enterprises — Transnet, Eskom and the Post Office — being over-indebted and perennially on the verge of collapse, he said.
“It is tone-deaf, at best, to propose that the government should nationalise much of the rest of the economy. That the South African economy can be transformed to address unemployment, poverty, and inequality without transfer of wealth to the people as a whole is neither a supposition, nor is it illusory.”
Vegter said the EFF’S proposal to limit political interference in the operation of state-owned entities, while laudable, does not promise to be effective because it neglects to outline a credible strategy to limit and prosecute corruption in the government.
He said that state control, as emphasised by the EFF, was “patronising” and “a nasty ideology”.
“The EFF thinks dignity is about material conditions. Socialists have a very appealing message to people who don’t understand economics.”
Voting EFF would not solve the problems people have with the ANC, he said.
As reported by the Mail & Guardian, during the party’s manifesto launch Malema said an EFF government would have the final say on the appointments of the governor of the South African Reserve Bank, chapter nine institutions, stateowned enterprises and the inspector general of intelligence.
“The EFF government will change the constitutional structure, including the abolition of the provincial sphere of government, accompanied by a mass restructuring and strengthening of local government spheres into a unitary state,” the manifesto said.
In its manifesto, the EFF again called for the Constitution to be amended to change the National Prosecution Authority to a chapter nine institution. This means it will be independent, and subject only to the Constitution and the law.
The EFF has continued to gain support across the country, particularly among the youth, with political polls — including by market researcher
Ipsos — finding that the Red Berets could remove the DA as the official opposition, placing it in the running to form a coalition with the ANC.
Despite strained relations between the two parties in Gauteng, the EFF is likely to join the ANC should the need for a coalition emerge after the elections.
Political analyst Ongama Mtimka has previously said that the EFF has become the nation’s third-largest political party by assuming the mantle traditionally held by the ANC.
The EFF’S emphasis on land matters and employment enables black voters to transfer their support from the ANC to the EFF “without altering their political alignment”, Mtimka said in an interview late last year.
On Tuesday, Mtimka said the EFF’S manifesto speech reasserted the party’s core message found in its 2013 and 2019 manifestos, showing confidence in its electoral position.
“The party has become confident about its potential to continue growing in the South African electoral market. They reasserted their cardinal pillars with a mixed economy approach with a stronger role to play for the state than under the ANC. It is strongly statist but has room for the private sector. This is visible in that Julius Malema speaks about the ability to attract investment for industrialisation,” he said.
Although the
EFF was often characterised as ‘one-dimensional’, it was not superficial