The year that was: EFF faces its litmus test following electoral decline and exodus
For the first time in its 11-year history, the EFF suffered at the polls this year, dropping from 10% to 9%.
The Economic Freedom Fighters’ 3rd National People’s Assembly kicks off at the Nasrec Expo Centre in Johannesburg on 13 December 2024. Picture: Jacques Nelles/Eyewitness News
JOHANNESBURG - In its conference discussion notes, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) have made a frank observation that their message has not resonated well with the country's electorate.
For the first time in its 11-year history, the EFF suffered at the polls this year, dropping from 10% to 9%.
Some of the EFF's top leaders have also dumped their red berets for the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party.
READ: POLITICS WRAP 2024: Elections spawn GNU, MK Party’s meteoric rise, RIP Mboweni, Gordhan & EFF exits
In its discussion documents ahead of the third elective conference, the EFF said the 2024 electoral outcomes signal it’s stagnating or an organisation in decline.
In 2019, the EFF received zero votes in 399 voting stations while in 2024 that figure rose to 560 voting stations.
Political analyst Vusi Gumbi said the EFF's electoral decline was unexpected.
He said with the EFF having grown in the four elections it has contested, there was an expectation that it would be the party to take advantage of the African National Congress (ANC)'s decline.
The EFF's electoral decline benefitted the MK Party which replaced the red berets as the country’s third most supported party.
The MK Party has also seen some senior EFF leaders, including its former deputy president Floyd Shivambu and former national chairperson Dali Mpofu joining it.
Gumbi said this exodus from the EFF to the MK Party has more to do with personal ambitions rather than the future of the EFF as a big player in the country’s politics.