LETTER: EFF a failure, but reminds SA again what a mess the ANC has made

Julius Malema’s burning obsession to be the public face of a nationwide shutdown and revolutionary national protest backfired badly for him and his party, and could well lead to increasing political irrelevance of the EFF and his own racist, fascist leadership.

Despite the repeated claim that March 20 would bring the country to its knees, Malema’s initiative turned out to be nothing more than a poorly supported, generally dismissed, costly damp squib, and confirmed that he and his EFF are delusional, all bluff and bluster, incapable of bringing any form of constructive solution to our country’s problems. 

Unnecessary as their feeble public performance may have been, it did remind South Africans again just how great a mess the ANC-led government has made of our country, and how ineffective democratic opposition politics has been in building political momentum that has the potential to throw the ANC and its alliance partners out of government and neutralise irrelevant political irritants such as the EFF and other fly-by-night parties that manufacture political relevance through theatrics.

It is to be hoped that the real political consequence of the events of March 20 lies in the rejection by any political entity, especially the ANC, of the notion of entering any sort of alliance with the EFF at any level of government. It should be condemned to the political wilderness to shrivel up and die.

If not, the EFF may well continue to be a political lifeline to a few dubious but high-profile political personalities and factions within the ANC, and thereby remain a threat to our constitutional democracy.

This should provide a compelling reason for opposition leaders to work towards a unified political movement that reduces the EFF to even greater insignificance, presents a serious threat to the ANC, and ensures that regime change can be effected via the ballot box rather than political wheeling and dealing, corrupt coalition formations or revolutionary action.

David Gant
Kenilworth

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