This study presents a novel approach to understanding the economic freedom fighters (EFF) role in South African politics. The party has been called populist, fascist, and a threat to South Africa's democracy. This study was conducted through virtual ethnography research on the role of the EFF in South Africa's politics and presents the research findings here to understand if the EFF is merely populist, a threat to democracy, or encouraging citizens' political participation. The study's findings indicate that the EFF uses populist stances to attract supporters and voters to the party. But unlike the views of some commentators and scholars, the study presents different findings regarding the EFF's populist attitudes in the country's democracy. While some see such populist stances as a threat to democracy, the study views it as the party's advantage, among others, to encourage citizen political participation.
TopIntroduction
Discussions surrounding the effect of populism on democracy and viewing it as a form of democratic participation are rife. Existing literature is divided on this topic; some view populism as a threat to democracy (Mudde & Kalwasser, 2017), while others view it as a modification or a reform of democracy (Zaslove et al., and Akkerman, 2020). According to Taggart (2002), populism has an ambivalent relationship with representative politics. Urbinati (2014) states that the relationship between populism and democracy is parasitical. These arguments imply that populism is part of democracy, whether as a threat or an opportunity. This study intends to investigate the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) role in South Africa's politics using the frameworks of populism, political participation, and democracy.
Populism denotes a political discourse that stands for a political position that engages in confrontational, anti-establishment politics to displace the ruling elites in representative liberal democracies (Muller, 2019). Populism is a stance against liberal democracy and not merely an anomaly – like a transitory ani-system protect vote intended to shake democracy (Muller, 2019). However, Barber (2019) cautions that there is a commonality among the critics of populism: policies and political styles they dislike are regarded as mere populism. These include examples such as Bretix, the rise of Donald Trump, and Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine. These policies and political styles are treated as constitutionally and democratically flawed. These arguments are prevalent in this study, as they set the basis upon which this paper will approach the attachment between the EFF and populism in South Africa.
The EFF was formed on the 27th of July 2013. The party was formed by former African National Congress Youth League leader (ANCYL) Julius Malema and former ANCYL spokesperson Floyd Shivambu. Malema was suspended from the ANC for five years for sowing divisions within the ANC. Shivambu and the league’s secretary-general were also suspended for three years. This suspension led the duo to leave the ANC and form the EFF to continue to fight for economic freedom, a policy position they believed the ANC had abandoned.
The party describes itself as
A radical and militant economic emancipation movement…to bring together revolutionary, militant activists, community-based organizations, as well as lobby groups under the umbrella of the political party pursuing the struggles of economic emancipation (EFF, 2020, p. 1).
The EFF’s primary policy focuses on the previously oppressed and exploited blacks' total ownership of economic and natural resources. Marxism, Leninism, and Fanonism ideologies influence the party’s radical, leftist, and anti-capitalist positions (EFF, 2020). The party states they are a socialist movement modelled after Latin American socialism led by leaders such as Che Guevara and Fidel Castro.
In its first electoral participation in 2014, the EFF gained 6% of the votes (31 members of Parliament). This was the beginning of the new political culture in South Africa. The arrival of the EFF in parliament injected vibrancy and dynamism into parliament. The EFF has forced parliament to engage communities on the possible amendment of Section 25 of the constitution to allow land expropriation without compensation. This is the first time since 1994 that parliament has embarked on this process. The EFF has also led the insourcing of workers into government employment; they have proposed the establishment of the state bank in parliament.