The EFF has raised its hand in becoming part of the Government of National Unity (GNU).
This is as President Cyril Ramaphosa and the DA were said to be ironing out finer details of a possible coalition government agreement with 10 other parties.
On Saturday, EFF secretary-general Marshall Dlamini indicated that his party was willing to join GNU on the condition that the DA and the Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus) were excluded from the union.
The Red Berets indicated that it has held a bilateral meeting in which it proposed some of the possible changes to the GNU.
“The EFF is of the view that, based on the successive manifestos of the ANC, in particular the 2024 election manifesto, there is more that brings us together to co-govern and hit the ground running.
“We recognise that despite differences in tactics and disagreement over the years, and most recently, the 2024 elections outcomes present an opportunity to co-operate on the basis of mutual respect and in the interest of building trust, which can only in struggle and not in abstraction,” said Dlamini in his letter to the ANC.
The EFF’s plea to ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula comes just as media reports have indicated that the DA’s Federal Executive is still willing to continue negotiations with the ANC about the composition of the GNU in spite of major differences over the allocation of Cabinet posts.
Last week, in a leaked letter to the ANC, the DA demanded no less than 11 ministerial positions including deputy ministerial positions and other administrative positions.
Unlike the DA and other parties which have been accused of making outlandish demands for Cabinet positions, Dlamini indicated that the EFF was not interested in Cabinet positions.
“We would like to state that we are not in the mission to pursue Cabinet positions for careerist purposes. We seek participation that will bring meaningful and historic change to the lives of the oppressed people of South Africa as a whole.
“The ANC must consider the fact that despite all the effort by big business and imperialism force to influence the election towards a liberal outcome, our people still gave the organisation historically associated with the liberation movement over 66% seats in Parliament.
“We conclusively advice that the ANC must not work or co-govern with the DA and the FF Plus in the interest of its historic mission. The ANC must do, even if it believes the EFF is not its preferred partner,” said Dlamini.
The letter to Mbalula comes more than a month since national elections which saw the ANC lose its majority for the first time, forcing the governing partly to a much-predicted coalition government.
Tensions among the 11 parties within the GNU have characterised the negotiations which have failed to yield the much desired GNU government amid outlandish demands from the DA and other parties over Cabinet positions.
The EFF has proposed a new government between itself and the ANC instead of the one with the DA and other forces.
“The EFF proposes a new agreement or statement of intent between the EFF and the ANC instead of the ANC of intent agreed to by GNU partners. This means, we enter into an agreement with the ANC as leader of government, and not with the other partners it may invite to government. Such an agreement, or statement of intent must include key principles informed by the strategic objective of the total liberation of the oppressed as encapsulated in the Freedom Charter,” Dlamini stated.
The Star