Deputy President Floyd Shivambu. Picture: Timothy Bernard / African News Agency (ANA)
The EFF’s goal is to occupy the administrative city after the general election.
So said the party’s deputy president Floyd Shivambu in an interview with Newzroom Afrika on Monday.
“We are going to be either No 1 or No 2 in South Africa after the elections. The majority of South Africans are saying the ANC must pack its bags and leave political power... they have been unable to keep the light on,” said Shivambu.
The party’s second-in-command said this year’s elections would be highly contested, adding that all credible polls were pointing to the fact that the ANC would likely go below 40%.
Shivambu said many South Africans had already demonstrated in the 2021 local elections that they were fed up with the ANC.
“If we were to aggregate the vote the ANC got in 2021, it is far below 50%, so the majority of South Africans are saying the ANC must pack its bags and leave.
“For the past 30 years, the ANC has been in power they were unable to transform the country into the economic power, and they were unable to empower the majority of our people,” he said.
Shivambu said the ruling party was still struggling to stabilise the government, saying that they were also unable to build sustainable development and durable infrastructure. He said the governing party were unable to do was to provide water and keep the lights on.
The deputy president said this year’s elections would be a farewell for the former liberation movement.
On the existence of Umkhonto WeSizwe (MK) Party, Shivambu said his organisation was up to the task, adding that to this day there was no evidence that it would perform better than it.
“So far there is no evidence that the MK party is going to perform better than the EFF, including in KwaZulu-Natal. We are not bleeding because of the MK Party,” a confident Shivambu added.
He said ever since the establishment of the MK Party, the EFF had not lost a single member.
“We are not bleeding because of MK. The party that is bleeding because of MK is the ANC. In any case MK is the real ANC, but they have their own issues that they must sort out there.”
On energy, he said the party would see through the Inga Dam project for hydro electricity that would produce 30 000 megawatts which could electrify the entire southern continent.
“If you want to industrialise, you need to have stable and reliable supply of electricity and that is what we are going to do as the EFF. If we were to take power tomorrow, we would go into action and there would be an end to load shedding in South Africa.”
According to the latest Ipsos poll, the EFF could unseat the DA as the official opposition after the election.
The poll was conducted face-to-face from October 23 to December 1, 2023 and aimed to gauge the political pulse of the country.
Ipsos is one of the largest market research companies in the world, present in 90 markets and employing more than 18 000 people.
The Star
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