Ml Muhammad Bham | mbham@radioislam.co.za
10 May 2023 | 17:00 CAT
3 min read

Photo Credit: Daily Friend

There are indications that the marriage between the ANC and the EFF is taking strain. The coalition partners are at loggerheads over governance.

Political analyst Nteboheleng Tsehla joined Your World Today host Yusuf Moosagie to discuss the differences between the two parties.

The two parties in a coalition arrangement in Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni don’t seem to agree on how best to run Ekurhuleni, and their political differences are becoming public.

Looking at the current coalitions in the Gauteng area, specifically Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni, in the last two to three weeks, the ANC has been battling it out with the DA and Action SA in Johannesburg, and at this point, they are having relationships of convenience.

The problem with a coalition is that when you are in a position where you are at someone’s mercy, it can backfire on you. The EFF is pulling its power because it knows the ANC needs it. It will do anything and everything to ensure that running up to the general elections, which are coming up next year, they are at the forefront of ensuring that they are on people’s lips and that they are the ones that can win Ekurhuleni eventually or even nationally with an outright win and not with a coalition. If they can not keep it together, we might see that this relationship might fall just like it has in Johannesburg.

In the last few days, the ANC and EFF have been discussing service delivery and the MMC of Finance in the Ekurhuleni area, who also happens to be the Regional Chairperson of the EFF, is having meetings with service providers over non-payment of invoices.

One of the main points of discussion will be the area’s governance and also discussing things that the residents of Ekurhuleni have been complaining about, like the removal of waste. In this instance, the MMC of Finance met with service providers; the ANC are not happy with this because there has been speaking about the trucks that are supposed to come and pick up the waste, there is a record of 103, but when the actual audit is done, then only 72 of the trucks come up.

These incidents bring into question the ANC and the DA when they were running Ekurhuleni; what have they been doing with the Finances?

This causes instability in their relationship with the ANC, and the ANC asks, “Why are you going deeper than what you need to in order for this relationship to work?”

Therefore, the ANC and EFF talks are more than mere governance. The EFF is trying to show that they do deliver the services that they promised when coming into this coalition and also making sure the ANC will follow them and play to their tune to make sure that this coalition that they have worked and, in that way, the power will always be in the hands of the kingmaker. In this case, it is the EFF.

Listen to the full interview with Yusuf Moosagie on Your World Today here