July 26 2013, while the ANC was minding its own business as the dominant political party and the DA reaching a ceiling in its traditional support base, the red berets were born.
At the time, no-one really knew what character the EFF would assume. It’s safe to say many expected it to ruffle some political feathers, thanks to the notorious Julius Malema, known as the rabble-rouser leader of the ANC youth wing until he was shown the door in 2012.
The makeup of the EFF’s founding leadership looked more like a coalition of wounded ANC rejects alongside some new entrants into the political arena.
Styled as a radical socialist political formation, the launching date mirrored the 26th of July Movement of Cuba led by Fidel Castro, one of the most famous socialists in world history.
The chosen outfit, especially the red beret, was a nod to the late radical leftist and former president of Burkina Faso, Thomas Sankara.
Symbolic stunts continued to characterise the party in its infancy Its official launch took place at the Marikana koppie in the North West, where mineworkers had perished a year before under a rain of bullets from the police.
But it was the 2014 general elections that marked the EFF as a force to be reckoned with.
The new kid on the block landed in style in parliament, jumping from obscurity straight into the third largest political party with 25 seats.
Having declared in its founding manifesto that it will “with determination and consistency associate with the protest movement in SA”, scandal-prone ANC president and head of state Jacob Zuma was to never know peace in parliament again.
Zuma was not the only target; neither public nor private institutions were spared.
Parliament TV would become one of the favourite channels in many SA households, thanks to the red berets who heckled and interrupted Zuma’s state of the nation address speeches, the most important event in the national legislature’s annual calendar.
But the party’s persistent protests against Zuma were not limited to parliament’s four walls — it also mobilised South Africans onto the streets.
As if changing the rules of engagement in parliament was not big enough, the EFF became game-changers in the local government elections in 2016. Some traditional ANC voters stayed home, while others voted for the EFF, leading to hung results in three of the country’s metropolitan municipal councils.
With that, the EFF, comprising mostly former ANC leaders, had bloodied the nose of the ruling party, until then accustomed to no real opposition on its own turf.
The red berets in some municipalities started working with the DA, a policy contradiction that earned the EFF a “flip-floppers” reputation.
But it continued shouting “pay back the money” at Zuma, hitting the ANC at its core, a street fight that would continue until the fall of the Nkandla pensioner in early 2018.
How long will Shivambu be content with playing second fiddle to Malema? Political history is not short of incidents where ambitious deputies seek to topple the master to the throne.
The EFF, in this relatively smooth nine-year journey, had a fair share of controversies that threatened to throw the party into a political dustbin, as was the case with previous ANC splinters.
The biggest threat came in 2018, when the party was linked to the Venda Burial Society (VBS Mutual Bank) mutual bank heist scandal. The person directly implicated in benefiting millions of rand was the younger brother of EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu, Brian.
Tracing the money revealed the EFF had benefited from some portions, as did big brother Shivambu.
The party, however, mounted a spirited defence to disassociate itself and its leaders from the scandal.
The money-related scandals did not end there, as stories of party leader Julius Malema linked with suspicious business ventures came to the fore.
Such was not new about Malema, who had his fair share of controversies during his time as ANCYL president.
But the EFF weathered these storms and went on to grow its electoral support, scoring 19 more seats in parliament during the 2019 general elections.
The party also managed internal fallouts well.
Many, if not all, of its leaders who jumped ship, including Andile Mngxitama, Kenny Kunene and others, made disparaging remarks about how its leaders handled finances and managed party affairs.
With Zuma gone and the party grasping for relevance, questions started emerging on whether the EFF had reached a ceiling in its growth.
The test was the 2021 local government polls where quantitatively the party got more votes but still failed to win a single municipal council with an outright majority.
Their kingmaker status in metro cities had also been weakened by the emergence of Action SA.
With Malema and Shivambu, the party’s most prominent leaders having been re-elected for second terms as first and second in command with ease, some started wondering if the EFF could survive should these two vacate their positions.
But a more pressing question is how long will Shivambu be content with playing second fiddle to Malema? Political history is not short of incidents where ambitious deputies seek to topple the master to the throne.
Some argue the party’s weakness lie in it being built around the image of its leader.
But Malema disagrees, saying this is a strength, adding the ANC has also always built its image around its president.
Malema is expected to stand for a third time and has said on multiple occasions he will stand as many times as he can, if called upon to do so by party membership. This is allowed according to the EFF’s constitution, which places no limit on terms of office.
His third term may prove fatal for the EFF project, if SA political party culture in the democratic dispensation is anything to go by.
Across different political parties, a third term is frowned upon, a lesson former ANC president Thabo Mbeki learnt the hard way.
Malema might find himself on the wrong side of history if he continues to believe he is immune to failure.
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