The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) says that its growth in support is due to its supporters making sure they made it to the polls on Election Day.
With 52% of voting districts declared, the party is in third place nationally behind the African National Congress (ANC) and Democratic Alliance (DA). It has almost 10% of the vote.
In 2016 the party received an overall tally of 8.6%.
“With the lower turnout our voter base has not changed, so the people who did not turn up are not the EFF base. There are the ANC and the DA that is why they are declining. So, we have already surpassed the mark that we were in 2016, what we are getting now is just a bonus.
“So, we are quite excited about that, so we want to thank our people really for coming out in their numbers as they promised to remember, we were doing door to door, we were doing community meetings and our people promised they would come out in numbers and vote for the EFF and the numbers are showing,” says Party Treasurer General Ompile Maotwe.
EFF’s Omphile Maotwe talks about possible coalitions:
EFF in Free State
Preliminary election results reveal that the EFF has made inroads in the hotly contested Metsimaholo Municipality in the Free State.
The party has won two wards, securing wards for the first time in Metsimalo. That sets the ANC down to 15 wards out of a total of 23. The DA has bagged six wards.
The ANC lost Metsimaholo in 2016 to a multiparty coalition led by the Metsimaholo Community Association. The coalition collapsed after the council failed to adopt a budget.
A new coalition led by the SACP emerged after a bi-election in 2017. The EFF’s Selloane Motjeane says their latest performance is a sign that the community has confidence in them.
“We are very happy as Economic Freedom Fighters in Fezile Sabi to win 2 wards in fact. The most fantastic news is that we were able to make an inroad in an old location where the ANC has been leading for many years. We encourage all other wards in the next election to have confidence in the EFF. Ward 8 and 23 will be an example of how a councilor of EFF is going to work with the community and constituency.”
