South Africa’s radical leftwing Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) on Friday said it was open to forming a grand coalition with centrists and other rivals in order to oust the long-ruling ANC in next year’s elections.
“The opposition parties should come together to unseat the ANC,” EFF leader Julius Malema told a press briefing in Johannesburg.
The country’s biggest opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), this month announced a coalition with six smaller groups, but the initiative left the EFF on the sidelines.
“If the DA had invited us, we would have come onboard,” Malema, 42, said.
“But we cannot impose ourselves on the opposition parties. If they don’t want us, we will work with those who want to work with us.”
The African National Congress (ANC), which spearheaded the fight against apartheid, has governed South Africa since the advent of democracy in 1994.
But in next year’s legislative elections it risks seeing its share of the vote slide below 50 percent, its standing battered by discontent at corruption, power cuts, a sickly economy and entrenched unemployment.
The party suffered record losses in the 2021 municipal elections, the first time in the democratic era its support dipped below half of ballots cast nationally.
The DA is a liberal party that has a fifth of the seats in parliament. Polls currently indicate it stands to win about 16 percent of the vote.
The militant EFF, which draws inspiration from Marxism-Leninism, is South Africa’s third largest party, polling at around 13 percent.
The DA this month described its “Moonshot Pact” as bringing together “different parties — excluding the ANC, EFF and their proxies.”
Under the constitution, the National Assembly meets after the elections in order to choose the president. Usually, a candidate from the party with majority lawmakers wins.
Breaking News
-
Typhoon Bebinca lashes Shanghai with strong winds and torrential rains, forcing flights to…
-
US guitarist and singer Tito Jackson, an original member of the legendary…
-
In the heart of the East Malian city of Gao stands the Tomb…
-
Liverpool's perfect start under Arne Slot came to a stunning end as Nottingham Forest won…
-
At a low, squat building in Springfield, Ohio, housing a Haitian community center, the FBI…
-
The SpaceX Polaris Dawn mission, which made history when its crew conducted the first ever…
-
Italian prosecutors requested on Saturday a six-year prison sentence for Matteo Salvini, Italy's far-right deputy…
-
Persecution of bereaved relatives. Impunity for perpetrators. Rampant executions and infighting among the opposition.A bleak…
-
Three Americans, two Spaniards and a Czech citizen were detained in Venezuela on suspicion of…
-
The Israeli military said a missile fired from Yemen crossed into central Israel on Sunday…