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EFF increases support in Emalahleni municipality

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Paul Berkowitz

The EFF has increased its support in five wards in the municipality of Emalahleni, Mpumalanga. Compared with the 2014 results the party grew strongly in the townships of Thushanang and KwaGuqa as well as the surrounding suburbs.

The table below summarises the EFF’s share of the national vote in the 2014 and the 2019 elections:

 

Ward 2014 2019
10 14.0% 23.7%
13 9.9% 16.2%
14 20.9% 22.3%
11 7.0% 15.9%
16 6.3% 13.8%

The EFF shot to official opposition in Mpumalanga with four seats in the 30-seat provincial legislature and its impressive growth in the province and in KwaZulu-Natal. Its performance will go a long way toward dispelling the notion that the party’s support is geographically confined.

In the 2014 election the EFF received most of its support in the Gauteng, North-West and Limpopo provinces. Its support was also highly correlated with Bantu-group home languages i.e. people speaking Sepedi, Setswana and Sesotho. This correlation is weakening as the party’s appeal spreads to a more diverse demographic: four of the five Emalahleni wards are predominantly isiZulu-speaking, as are many of the KwaZulu-Natal wards where the EFF grew in 2019.

 

 

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