'No-one will get to govern without the EFF' — Fana Mokoena pours cold water on multiparty charter's ambitions

18 August 2023 - 14:30
By Unathi Nkanjeni
Former EFF MP and actor Fana Mokoena.
Image: LUCKY MORAJANE Former EFF MP and actor Fana Mokoena.

Former EFF MP Fana Mokoena has poured cold water on the multiparty charter (formerly moonshot pact) for South Africa's ambitions to topple the ANC and keep the EFF out of a possible national opposition coalition government.

The multiparty charter consists of the DA, IFP, FF Plus, ActionSA, United Independent Movement, Spectrum National Party and Independent South African National Civic Organisation.

The parties gathered at Emperors Palace in Kempton Park on Wednesday and Thursday.

“The moonbag (sic) thing is not going to save the DA, and [ActionSA leader Herman] Mashaba’s social club will still not get a single seat in parliament. The DA is finished, their collapse is complete and no amount of coalescing will remedy it. They must join AfriForum and go sell ‘die swart gevaar’ or ‘doomsday’.

“The DA does not take this moonbag pact seriously. They’re merely attempting to threaten the ANC with a baseless power base and scare them into a coalition. If the ANC agrees to a coalition, moonbag collapses. Fact is, no-one will get to govern without the kingmaker, the EFF.”

Mokoena said the multiparty charter's only mission is to keep the EFF out of power, not the ANC.

“It was a DA initiative and remains so. The DA’s enemy number one is EFF, not ANC. The ANC is not a threat, it’s on its way out anyway,” he said.

He said the DA chose the “weakest” candidates for the multiparty charter purely so it could be the dominant force and dictate terms.

“Some are so weak they have not yet contested national elections before but they are insatiably hungry for positions. The moonbag thing has already failed.

“The EFF has made it look so easy. Now Tom, Dick and Harry think they can wake up one day and contest national elections. They have no ideology, no structures and no groundswell. National elections is not by-elections. It will humble you,” he said.

Mokoena also took a dig at Mashaba, saying: “Mashaba resigned from the DA only to rejoin it by the back door through a thing called a moonbag.”

EFF leader Julius Malema last month slammed the parties rallying together in the multiparty coalition.

“I fail to understand, I want to find out what it is that we did wrong. We hear of a moonshot, moon pact, I don’t know what it is called. They didn’t tell me what I did wrong so I can fix it,” he said.

Malema speculated that his party's exclusion was possibly due to its refusal to be controlled by “white monopoly capital”.

“Every political development in this country has the Oppenheimers' handwriting on it. But there is one thing that they do not control, and that is the EFF. And that gives them nightmares. The notion to ‘keep the EFF out’ comes from there.”