Carl Niehaus Flies to Johannesburg to Back EFF — Announces Defection on Election Eve

Carl Niehaus boarded a flight to Johannesburg on Tuesday morning for one purpose alone — to cast his special vote for the Economic Freedom Fighters before turning straight around and heading back to Cape Town. The veteran political agitator made his intentions crystal-clear on social media, declaring that his ballot belongs to Julius Malema’s red berets ahead of Wednesday’s general elections.

Niehaus, long associated with the African National Congress, urged all EFF members and registered supporters to exercise their democratic right during the special voting window on Tuesday and Wednesday. He framed participation as non-negotiable, writing that members must turn out “without fail” and calling for what he described as an “overwhelming tsunami” of EFF ballots across South Africa on 4 November 2025.

The EFF welcomed the declaration, with party structures in the Western Cape confirming Niehaus forms part of their election deployment in the Cape Town Metro. Regional coordinators told journalists the former ANC spokesman brings name recognition and grassroots energy to a province the party views as critical for growing its support base beyond Gauteng strongholds.

Niehaus carries significant political baggage into this endorsement. The Limpopo-born activist served as ANC spokesperson before a series of financial scandals and internal disciplinary battles eroded his standing within Luthuli House. His relationship with ANC leadership deteriorated markedly during former president Jacob Zuma’s legal battles, with Niehaus becoming a vocal Zuma defender who repeatedly clashed with the party’s national executive structures.

At OR Tambo International Airport, a fellow traveller reportedly snapped a photograph of Niehaus clutching his identity document and a small EFF-branded lapel pin, waiting at a domestic departures gate with the calm expression of someone who had already made his peace with the consequences — a single image that spread across WhatsApp groups faster than any press release could travel.

What remains unanswered is whether Niehaus represents an isolated voice or the leading edge of a broader migration of disillusioned ANC veterans toward opposition movements. His willingness to announce the switch so publicly — name attached, party named, no ambiguity offered — raises a question his former comrades in Johannesburg have not yet addressed: how many others are quietly planning to follow?

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