The EFF were among the biggest winners of the general elections, receiving 10.79% of the national vote, shy of a few thousand votes to reach their real target.
The aggressive campaign the red berets embarked on across the country paid off as they almost doubled their support of 6.35% achieved in the 2014 elections. This also almost doubled its seats in the National Assembly from 25 to 44.
Polls had projected that the EFF would grow to 14% in the May 8 elections, and though the party might be disappointed that it did not reach those levels, its national chair Dali Mpofu said he was happy the party was now in double figures.
“We are happy to have achieved a double-digit figure nationally, while the other two major parties have declined,” Mpofu said on Friday, as it became clear the ANC would not breach the 60% threshold. The ANC retained its position of power in the country but with a reduced majority of 57.5% of the national vote.
“We have created history,” Mpofu said. “We have exceeded the number achieved by Cope in 2009.”
The EFF can claim this victory as it is the only breakaway political party from the ANC to grow its support twice — in the 2016 local government elections and in last week’s election, after contesting its first national election five years ago.
Cope, which was also formed by former ANC leaders including Mbazima Shilowa and its president Mosiuoa Lekota, received 1.3-million votes or 7.42% in the 2009 general elections.
But it went down to 0.67% in the 2014 elections as it bled members, who either returned to the ANC fold or joined other parties, due to a bruising leadership battle between Lekota and Shilowa.
When then ANC Youth League president Julius Malema was expelled from the party in 2012, for bringing the former liberation movement into disrepute, he went on to start the EFF, declaring at the time that “the gloves are off”.
The ANC dismissed the loudmouthed rabble-rouser, saying his new political formation would die a natural death.
Malema, looking rather pleased at what the EFF has become, declared at the EFF final rally in Soweto a few days before the elections: “The EFF is everywhere, they thought we are a Mickey Mouse organisation. Now they realise we are a force to be reckoned with.
“You can’t talk about SA’s future without the EFF. We are the future of SA. Who would have imagined today that we are finishing five years. They gave us one, two years. We are finishing five years now.”
Now after contesting two national elections and a local government election, the EFF has to start working on building on its base if it wants to ensure that it keeps its support and grows it.
The ANC and DA already have established bases, despite both parties losing support in the elections.
Mpofu said both would probably still get a few million votes in an election even if they did not go out and campaign.
“We do not have such a thing — we have to fight for every vote. As we participate we are getting into building a core.”
He said the EFF’s core base would be made up of the poor, young voters, the working class and some sections of the black middle class. Mpofu said there were also “progressive white people” beginning to understand the EFF’s message.
One of the main challenges however, would be to get the 6-million unregistered eligible young voters aged under 30 to register and vote during the next elections.
The party’s appeal to young voters is a major advantage for the EFF, especially if it is able to maintain their support in the years going forward.
But for now the EFF, which emerged as kingmakers in the 2016 local government election, has every reason to pat itself on the back for its electoral performance.
It retained its status as the official opposition in North West and Limpopo and took up the second position in Mpumalanga.
The EFF now has two years until the 2021 local government election to work on its base and continue growing. It has already said it is ready to go into the government and has its eye on governing metros such as Tshwane and Johannesburg.
Whether it could do this without the help of a coalition partner is yet to be seen, but for now the party is on the up.
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