The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has put deputy leader Floyd Shivambu in charge of a ‘Coalition Negotiations Team’ that will be guided by a list of demands, including changing the Constitution to ‘realise’ expropriation without compensation within six months, and nationalising the Reserve Bank within a year.
Other conditions include:
- Creating a ‘State Bank’ in 12 months;
- Cancelling student debt in 12 months;
- Creating a ‘State Pharmaceutical Company’ in 12 months;
- Passing an ‘Insourcing Bill’ in 12 months;
- Removing Die Stem from the national anthem in 12 months;
- Opening clinics for 24 hours, seven days a week;
- Providing free sanitary towels ‘for all’; and
- Providing free water and electricity for all SASA beneficiaries.
The announcement was made in the following tweet:
The party said that ‘those who have approached the EFF must be prepared to agree and support’ a ‘framework of principles’, and ‘general commitments with deadlines’.
The ‘framework’ consisted of:
- ‘An appreciation of the EFF’s 7 non-negotiable pillars for economic freedom in our lifetime;
- ‘Service delivery commitments with timelines particularly on land, jobs, water, electricity, flushing toilets, and care for people with disabilities;
- ‘Anti-racism – meaning that whatever coalition is an outcome of EFF participation must not reinforce white supremacy and Afrikanerdom;
- ‘An understanding that the EFF should exclusively govern in all municipalities in exchange of others, and where this happens, there should be agreement on oversight functions given to coalition partner(s);
- ‘Non-interference in the appointment of municipal managers and all other senior managers;
- ‘Publication of all concrete agreements reached with coalition partners to avoid a perception that there are secret agreements; and
- ‘Constant and honest engagement and reports to the people on the progress made on coalitions.’
The election has resulted in a record 66 councils where no party achieved a majority.
The EFF made inroads in several provinces, but failed to keep its third place in the City of Johannesburg, where former mayor Herman Mashaba’s ActionSA took 16.05% of the votes. The ANC got 33.60%, followed by the DA with 26.14%.