EFF abusing DA desperation

The DA is quick to invoke ‘the will of the voters’ when threatened, forgetting that coalitions are themselves a violation of the will of the voters.

You have to hand it to the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF). They know how swiftly to move from the shadows of irrelevance to take centre stage. In a period when it seemed almost impossible for any story to eclipse the drama provided by the the Sars and state capture inquiries, Julius Malema and his party grabbed the limelight by first engineering the removal of Athol Trollip as mayor of Nelson Mandela Bay Metro and then threatening to do the same to Solly Msimanga, the executive mayor of the Tshwane Metro.

And, make no mistake, “the party of 6%”, as some have taken to calling the EFF, showed their coalition partners just who is in charge. The tail is definitely wagging the dog.

But to what end? Coalitions should be about partnerships to govern together, not one party governing through another.

A partnership based on the threat of the trigger being pulled at any given moment can only have disastrous consequences.

The fact is, Mmusi Maimane’s Democratic Alliance (DA) made a pact with an equivalent of their own devil because, in the aftermath of the 2016 local government elections, their aim was to get the ANC out of power by any means necessary.

Now those desperate decisions are back to haunt them.

The DA’s naivety when they went into coalitions with the EFF in the three metros must have also been bolstered by their track record in the Western Cape where they first governed with the help of Patricia de Lille’s Independent Democrats but then swallowed them up to eventually win an outright majority.

But the truth of the matter is, ideologically, the DA and De Lille’s IDs were compatible. There was no expropriation of land without compensation gulf that stood between the two parties like there is between the DA and the EFF.

The desperation of the DA to keep the ANC out of power was never clearer than when Julius Malema threatened that the EFF would “slit the throats of whiteness” by removing Trollip.

Any self-respecting partner in a coalition would have at least threatened to walk at such a blatant threat. But the DA chose to stay put which only made the EFF that much bolder.

It needs to be noted that the EFF is very aware of its 6% status. They are painfully aware that they do not govern anywhere. They are only kingmakers and even if that is a powerful position to be in, it is not the same as being the king.

These desperate moves to stay in the limelight through constant threats to their coalition partners are part of ensuring that, come the 2019 general elections, the electorate has some sort of a tangible track record of their ability to govern, even if it’s only through holding a gun to their coalition partners’ heads.

The DA is quick to invoke “the will of the voters” when threatened, forgetting that coalitions are themselves a violation of the will of the voters.

Parties form coalitions to keep others out, not necessarily to advance the will of the voter. The best that the DA can do for their voters is to formulate a clear and principled stand on coalitions to avoid getting into bed with their sworn political enemies.