ANC is going to need Julius’ EFF

It is slowly starting to dawn (not Cyril Ramaphosa’s dawn, though) on the ANC that perhaps it will not be able to rule South Africa “until Jesus comes” as our eloquent former president Jacob Zuma put it. The party that once believed it should be regarded as the soul and authentic representative of this country’s people is facing up to the very real possibility that it will get less than 50% of the votes in the 2024 election.

That return to earth is evidenced by ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula’s announcement this week that the party had adopted “a framework” on governing coalitions. In other words: we need the help of others to govern.

Those others, Mbalula said, will be those parties which share the ANC’s values, which he enunciated as stability, accountability, ethics and integrity, community participation, good governance, respect for the constitution and rule of law, social justice and equity, human dignity, non-racialism, and non-sexism.

Leaving aside the urge to chuckle cynically at those values – which are often honoured only in the negative by the ANC – it seems at first glance that the door would be open to co-operation with most other parties.

However, in reality, the fact that the ANC most closely shares its ideologies and policies with the Economic Freedom Fighters means that if the ANC is going to continue to govern, it is going to need Julius Malema.

Even allowing for the fact that Malema has repeatedly flip-flopped on positions, and his seeming antagonism towards the ANC on occasion, the two organisations have a lot in common – not surprising, given that Malema emerged from the ANC’s political womb.

One might wonder, if he was a product of the ANC, was he not deliberately set loose to entice more radical, nationalist voters?

A more radicalised government will not do this country any good, though.