The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) in Gauteng expressed their disappointment with the re-appointment of the same African National Congress (ANC) leaders into government positions in the province. This comes after Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi announced the provincial cabinet on Wednesday night.
The Executive Council consists of seven members from the ANC, one member from the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), one member from the Patriotic Alliance (PA), and one member from RiseMzansi. All seven ANC MECs are from the previous sixth administration. The Democratic Alliance (DA) has chosen to remain an opposition party in Gauteng.
The EFF Gauteng Communications Officer, Dumisani Baleni, emphasized that the EFF has clearly communicated its willingness and preparedness to participate in government both before and after elections. The party strongly believes that the interests and aspirations of the people can only be championed by the competent and committed leadership of the EFF. According to Baleni, the EFF is the only ideologically and politically dependable option in the battle against capitalism, racism, corruption, and poverty. However, he acknowledged that while voters rejected the ANC, they did not give the EFF a strong mandate to independently form a government.
‘Negotiating in bad faith’
Hellen Zille, from the DA, has criticized the ANC, stating that they are not interested in power-sharing. She mentioned that despite the ANC not winning an outright majority, they still act as if they are in charge. This criticism comes after coalition talks between the DA and the ANC fell through, leading to the DA withdrawing and failing to become part of the Executive of the Gauteng Government of Provincial Unity (GPU).
Zille says the reason talks collapsed is because the ANC was negotiating in bad faith.
“Not only is unfair and unreasonable but it doesn’t reflect the will of the voters and we uncovered what the ANC was doing, we told them we cannot proceed without good faith and we cannot proceed if you are going to manipulate and lie to us like that. Their initial offer of three seats was based on the fact that they wanted to keep 7 seats plus the premier that would have given 8 to 3. They wanted the DA to take three meaningless portfolios. They would not even tell us what those portfolios were.”
