EFF takes KZN local election campaign to Inanda as MK Party holds the province

The Economic Freedom Fighters launches its KwaZulu-Natal manifesto for the 4 November local government elections at the JL Dube Stadium in Inanda, north of Durban, on Saturday, 19 September. Party leader Julius Malema is expected to deliver it and to set out the party’s plans for local government over the next five years.

As The South African reported on 17 September, the launch is the party’s provincial manifesto event for the municipal poll. The choice of Inanda puts the launch in one of the densest urban areas in the country, in the eThekwini metro that the party is contesting alongside every other council in the province.

What the 2024 numbers show

KwaZulu-Natal is the province where the ground moved most after the 2024 national and provincial elections. The EFF took about 9,5% of the national vote and 39 seats in the National Assembly. In KwaZulu-Natal its share was about 2,6% of the provincial vote, well below what it won nationally.

That gap is the reason a provincial manifesto launch matters more here than in most provinces. A party that polls near a tenth of the country can find itself holding two of the 80 seats in the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature, which is exactly what happened.

The uMkhonto weSizwe Party took about 45,9% of the provincial vote and 37 of the 80 seats, becoming the largest party in the legislature. The IFP won 15 seats, the ANC 14, the DA 11, the EFF two, and the National Freedom Party one.

That result ended the ANC’s previous dominance in the province. The IFP, ANC, DA and NFP then agreed to form a Government of Provincial Unity, with the IFP’s Thami Ntuli elected premier. Those four parties hold 41 of the 80 seats between them. MK and the EFF hold the remaining 39 and sit outside the provincial government.

Malema has rejected the suggestion that the EFF’s position on open borders cost it support in the province. He has attributed the party’s performance to the emergence of the MK Party under former president Jacob Zuma.

He has also said the EFF was lucky to take about 350 000 votes in the 2019 local government elections, when Zuma had left the ANC and did not campaign for it, leaving voters who did not want the ANC with fewer alternatives. Ahead of 2024, MK gave those voters another option. The EFF finished fourth nationally behind the ANC, DA and MK Party.

Why the local poll is the test

The 4 November elections are municipal. They decide councils, ward committees and the people who run water, refuse, electricity connections and street lighting in the places where voters actually live. In eThekwini, the metro that contains Inanda, those are the services residents deal with every day.

For the EFF, the municipal ballot is where the provincial picture is either confirmed or disturbed. Two seats out of 80 in the legislature is a foothold. Council seats in a metro the size of eThekwini are a base, and the party is launching its provincial campaign in the middle of one of the largest townships in the country to make that argument.

For the parties in the Government of Provincial Unity, the same ballot is the first province-wide test of an arrangement put together after the 2024 result. For MK, it is the first municipal contest since it became the largest party in the province.

What happens next

The manifesto launch is set for Saturday, 19 September at the JL Dube Stadium in Inanda. The local government elections follow on 4 November.

Source: The South African, EFF to launch KZN local government election manifesto.