MALEMA EXPLOITS ANC FACTIONS

For once, though, Ramaphosa’s party managed to remain united in ensuring the failure of the EFF’s shutdown drama

Exploiting the ANC’s internal divisions is a tactic that has served Julius Malema well over the years, but it misfired this week for the EFF’s “national shutdown”.

It was these same divisions that led to the birth to the EFF in 2013, starting the year before with Malema’s expulsion from the ANC and Jacob Zuma’s victory at the Mangaung conference over Kgalema Motlanthe, on whom Malema had pinned his hopes.

An early instance of Malema exploiting rivalries in the ANC and Cosatu was his collaboration with Joseph Mathunjwa, leader of the Association of Mineworkers & Construction Union (Amcu), in the aftermath of the Marikana tragedy, which had highlighted tensions between Amcu and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM).

A year after the launch of the EFF, the party donated R50,000 to Amcu’s strike fund and the red berets championed the union’s R12,500 “living wage” slogan.

Amcu’s rise was to the detriment of the ANC-aligned NUM.

“We are encouraging our members to join Amcu,” Malema said two years after the Marikana massacre.

The NUM’s near-destruction due to the rise of Amcu weakened Cosatu considerably, with knock-on effects for the ANC, which relied heavily on the NUM’s support in elections. In the end, the heaviest blow against Cosatu was struck during the Zuma administration when the then ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe stoked the internal divisions in the labour federation. This culminated in the expulsion of its largest union, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa.

Malema’s tense relationship with Zuma, who he once proclaimed he would die for, is another example of how the EFF harnessed ANC factional dynamics for its own ends. As long as Zuma was still a powerful, unassailable force within

Malema’s shutdown attempt, despite the dubious support of Carl Niehaus and others, stood little chance of gaining traction, thanks mainly to the tectonic shift in internal ANC dynamics ushered in by the Nasrec conference

the ANC, the ruling party could shrug off Malema.

But once groups within the ANC began turning on Zuma, the EFF seized the opportunity to drive the divisions deeper. It was the EFF’s court bid to enforce the public protector’s report on Nkandla that helped to propel Zuma onto a slippery slope out of office.

The Constitutional Court’s 2016 Nkandla judgment backing Thuli Madonsela was the catalyst for Cosatu’s initiative — remarkable at the time — to urge the ANC to dump its president.

The protests that erupted as state capture revelations emerged were grist for the EFF mill and the party enthusiastically trumpeted the “Zuma must fall” message.

It was downright bizarre then, when, shortly after Zuma’s resignation, Malema went to pay homage at Nkandla, nonchalantly calling it a tea date. At the time Malema said he went to Nkandla to urge Zuma to appear before the state capture commission, but clearly there was a lot more on the agenda.

In July 2021, the riots and pillaging that spread after the jailing of Zuma provided the EFF with its best opportunity yet to fan the ANC’s internecine conflict.

The government’s response this month to the EFF’s “national shutdown” showed a great deal more focus than its handling of the July 2021 riots. This month ministers, the police, the army and the president all sprang into action, vowing to protect the rights of citizens.

Malema’s shutdown attempt, despite the dubious support of Carl Niehaus and others, stood little chance of gaining traction, thanks mainly to the tectonic shift in internal ANC dynamics ushered in by the Nasrec conference in December last year. Ramaphosa and his allies effectively left the Zuma faction in the dust, with the uninspiring figure of Niehaus as its chief flagbearer.

What was missing in Malema’s formula for political chaos on Monday was buy-in from factions of the ANC. Without it, the EFF was exposed as being exactly what it is: an 8% party.

But Malema is not going away, and the ANC’s current unity is likely to prove tenuous. There is already noise about Deputy President Paul Mashatile’s links to the EFF. As soon as the ANC reverts to its default position of factional warfare, Malema will be waiting in the wings to jump on it as no other opposition leader can.