EFF sends its Tshwane mayoral candidate into Ga-Rankuwa to chase first-time voters

The Economic Freedom Fighters spent the final hours of voting in Ga-Rankuwa, north of Pretoria, where the party says its incoming Tshwane mayor is meeting young people voting for the first time.

In a post on its official X account, the party said Omphile Maotwe, whom it describes as the EFF’s incoming mayor of Tshwane, was “connecting with young, first-time voters who are eager to see a new political future under the leadership of the EFF.” The post carried four photographs from the area but gave no crowd figures and named no residents.

The party’s message to those voters was blunt. “As the final hours of voting approach, we urge all young people to turn out in numbers and exercise their democratic right,” the post read. “Do not let others decide your future for you. Make your vote count and vote EFF!”

The post was tagged #VoteEFF2026 and #VictoryOrDeath.

The EFF’s claim to the Tshwane mayoralty is a statement of intent rather than a result. The party has not said which municipal outcome it is projecting, and the post carries no figures from any voting district in Ga-Rankuwa or elsewhere.

What the post does establish is where the party chose to spend its last campaigning hours and who it believes it can still move: young voters in a Pretoria township, addressed as first-timers whose ballots are still up for grabs.

The Enquirer has no independent account of turnout in Ga-Rankuwa or of how the party’s appearance there was received.