Economic Freedom Fighters facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Economic Freedom Fighters
Abbreviation	EFF
President	Julius Malema
Chairperson	Veronica Mente
Secretary-General	Marshall Dlamini
Spokesperson	Sinawo Tambo Leigh-Ann Mathys
Deputy President	Floyd Shivambu
Deputy Secretary-General	Poppy Mailola
Treasurer-General	Omphile Maotwe
Founders	Julius Malema Floyd Shivambu
Founded	26 July 2013 (2013-07-26)
Split from	African National Congress
Headquarters	119 Marshall Street, Johannesburg, Gauteng
Student wing	EFFSC
Membership (2022)	1,085,843
Ideology	Communism Marxism–Leninism Fanonism Sankarism Anti-capitalism Anti-imperialism Black nationalism Pan-Africanism Anti-Zionism
Political position	Far-left
Colours	Red
Slogan	"Our land and jobs, now!"
National Assembly	44 / 400
National Council of Provinces	11 / 90
Pan-African Parliament	1 / 5 (South African seats)
Provincial Legislatures	50 / 430
City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality (council)	30 / 270
Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality (council)	6 / 120
City of Cape Town (council)	10 / 231

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) is a South African Marxist–Leninist and black nationalist political party. It was founded by expelled former African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) President Julius Malema, and his allies, in 2013. Malema is President of the EFF, heading the Central Command Team which serves as the central structure of the party. It is currently the third-largest party in both houses of the Parliament of South Africa. The party is also the official opposition in three of South Africa's nine provincial legislatures.

History

Foundation and early history

At a 26 July 2013 press briefing in Soweto, Malema announced that the new party had over 1000 members, double the 500 required for registration with the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC). The EFF is now registered with the IEC, after an objection to its registration by the Freedom Front Plus (FF+) was dismissed in September 2013.

In 2015, the EFF suspended MP Lucky Twala and expelled three MPs, Mpho Ramakatsa, Andile Mngxitama and Khanyisile Litchfield-Tshabalala. Mngxitama formed his own party, named Black First Land First (BLF), while Litchfield-Tshabalala joined the United Democratic Movement. Malema has been chiefly accused by former members of purging his critics to consolidate his power, thus ruling the party with an iron fist. Malema acknowledged this criticism in a press conference and went on to say that the party should have expelled more ill-disciplined members.

Recent actions and activities

On 6 August 2015, the EFF announced that it has secured a Constitutional Court case for its "#PayBackTheMoney" campaign against Jacob Zuma. The case was heard on 9 February 2016. The judgement was released by Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng and stated that the then-President had violated the Constitution of South Africa, along with the Speaker of the National Assembly Baleka Mbete. The President was given 60 days to fulfill the requirements of the Public Protector Thuli Madonsela.

On 27 February 2018, the EFF tabled a motion in the National Assembly to amend the Constitution so as to allow for the expropriation of land without compensation. The motion, brought by the EFF leader Julius Malema, was adopted with a vote of 241 in support, and 83 against. The only parties who did not support the motion were the Democratic Alliance, Freedom Front Plus, Congress of the People and the ACDP. Land expropriation is one of the EFF's seven cardinal pillars.

In 2018, the party's student wing, the EFF Student Command came in first at several Student Representative Council elections, defeating the African National Congress (ANC)-aligned South African Students Congress (SASCO) at the Durban University of Technology, the University of Zululand and Mangosuthu University of Technology. They also won in Cape Town, the District Six, Mowbray and Bellville Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) campuses with landslide victories. They also won the University of Cape Town. Peter Keetse, president of the EFFSC, said the win was a warning shot for what was going to happen in 2019 national general elections. He said the youth were the influencers of the future: "this is an indication of what is to follow".

In March 2023 the party attempted to organise a national shutdown in protest of loadshedding and calling for South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to step down. The shutdown was widely reported as ineffective and involved an number of instances of fake news spread by party supporters.

Ideology and policies

Marxist–Leninist ideology

A small march by the EFF protesting in support of land reform in South Africa.

The EFF "draws inspiration from the broad Marxist–Leninist tradition and Fanonian schools of thought in their analyses of the state, imperialism, culture and class contradictions in every society", according to its constitution. The EFF states that it takes inspiration from Burkinabe President Thomas Sankara in terms of both style and Marxist ideology. Prominent EFF member Jackie Shandu declared the party a "proudly Sankarist formation".

Economics

It criticises the African National Congress and their primary opposition, the Democratic Alliance, for their allegedly pro-business stances, which it claims have sold out the black people of South Africa to capitalism as cheap labour. However, after 2016 local elections in South Africa, the EFF has suggested that they would back the Democratic Alliance in hung-metro areas, while reiterating that they would not be entering into a coalition with any political party.

It promises to tackle corruption, provide quality social housing, and provide free primary healthcare and education for all, as well as proposing to expropriate White-owned farmland, nationalise the mining and banking sectors, double welfare grants and the minimum wage, and end the proposed toll system for highways.

The EFF has been vocal in its criticism of black business owners and black owners of mining companies in South Africa. In an address at the Oxford Union in November 2015, Malema spoke out against billionaire mining company owner Patrice Motsepe. Further protests in 2015, the EFF delivered demands that included the socialisation of the mining sector and called for more explicit targets for the 26% BEE ownership required by law. The EFF is a vocal proponent of expanding the role of South African state-owned enterprises in the national economy. Malema addressed a crowd in Marikana, Rustenburg in the platinum mining area, blaming mining companies and calling out platinum mining company Lonmin in particular, for poverty in the region.

The EFF was the only parliamentary party that opposed the 2018 political party funding bill; a funding transparency law that requires political parties to publish who they receive funding from.

Foreign policy

Within Africa

The EFF presents itself as a Pan-Africanist party and supports the proposal for a United States of Africa. In respect to this, the EFF and Malema have repeatedly praised former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, promising to implement many of the policies in South Africa that Gaddafi implemented in Libya. The party is against presence of the American military bases in Africa, most notably in Botswana. Prior to forming the EFF, Malema had called for the overthrow of President Ian Khama's government in Botswana.

The EFF has been strongly critical of the government of Eswatini, one of the last absolute monarchies in the world, advocating for democratic reforms in the country and the removal of borders between it and South Africa. The party has supported a number of efforts to support change in Eswatini ranging from trying to shutdown the Eswatini-South Africa border with protest action to criticizing the electoral process in the country.

The EFF is critical of France's presence in Africa; in 2022 the party picketed outside of and ultimately barricaded the country's embassy in Pretoria. The French ambassador to South Africa criticised the EFF for scapegoating France as the supposed source of all Africa's problems. Following the death of Queen Elizabeth the EFF announced that they would not mourn her passing instead stating that "she never once acknowledged the atrocities her family inflicted on native people that Britain invaded across the world."

Outside Africa

The EFF is against Zionism, is strongly critical of Israel and its conflict with the Palestinians; referring to the country as "evil" and advocating for its destruction. During the 2023 Israel–Hamas war the leader of the EFF Julius Malema stated the party's support for Hamas and that should the party win the 2024 election they would send arms to assist the organisation.

The EFF officially supports Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, commending what they refer to as Russia's "anti-imperialist programme" against NATO. During the Lady R incident the party stated their support for any prospect of South African exports of military equipment to Russia that might assist in its invasion of Ukraine.

The party supports closer bilateral relations between South Africa and China whilst considering Taiwan to be an "integral part" of the People's Republic of China; it has referred to the Chinese Communist Party as the "torch-bearer for all Marxist–Leninist formations in the world".

LGBT+ rights

The EFF supports the rights of the LGBT+ community in Africa and officially condemns laws that seek to ban homosexuality. The party was critical of Uganda's 2023 Anti-Homosexuality Bill and led a protest outside of the Ugandan embassy in South Africa urging Uganda's president not to sign it into law. However later in 2023 the party was strongly criticized by members of the South African LGBT+ community for inviting Patrick Lumumba, a Kenyan professor who is publicly supportive of Uganda's 2023 Anti-Homosexuality Bill, to deliver the party's 10th anniversary lecture at the University of Cape Town.

Support base and prominent members

According to a November 2013 Ipsos survey, the party's supporters are younger than average, with 49% being younger than 24, overwhelmingly black (99%) and mostly male, with women representing only 33% of the support base. A disproportionate number of supporters live in Malema's home province of Limpopo (28%), while only 1% live in KwaZulu-Natal, a more populous province. A 2018 survey conducted by social research company Citizen Surveys found that around 70% of EFF supporters were between the ages of 18 and 34, overwhelmingly black (97%), mostly based in major metropolitan cities (48%), predominantly male (62%) with 43% of their support base located in Gauteng Province. The party was expected to make an impact in the 2014 general election, taking between 4 per cent and 8 per cent of the national vote. This was potentially enough for the party to hold the balance of power in provinces where the governing African National Congress was in danger of losing its absolute majority. The ANC retained its absolute majority whilst the EFF got 6.35% of the vote in the 2014 election.

High-profile members of the Central Command Team include Floyd Shivambu, Fana Mokoena and Mbuyiseni Ndlozi (National Spokesperson). Controversial businessman Kenny Kunene joined the Central Command Team in July 2013 before resigning from the Central Command Team on 20 August 2013 and from the organisation on 26 August 2013. On 4 November 2013, it was announced that Dali Mpofu had left the African National Congress (ANC) after 33 years of membership and joined the EFF.

Student wing

The Economic Freedom Fighters Students Command (EFFSC) is the party's student wing, founded on 16 June 2015. It campaigns for free education, universal access to education and the elimination of registration fees, among other things.

Election results

National elections

National Assembly

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Election	Total votes	Share of vote	Seats	+/–	Government
2014	1,169,259	6.35%	25 / 400	25	in opposition
2019	1,881,521	10.79%	44 / 400	19	in opposition

National Council of Provinces

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Election	Total # of seats won	+/–
2014	7 / 90	7
2019	11 / 90	4

Provincial elections

Municipal elections

See also

In Spanish: Luchadores por la Libertad Económica para niños

• Black First Land First
• Economic Freedom Fighters of Swaziland
• Economic Freedom Party
• Namibian Economic Freedom Fighters
• Pan Africanist Congress of Azania
• Socialist Party of Azania
• Workers and Socialist Party