EFF leader Julius Malema is expected to address supporters in Durban on Sunday at the party’s national Youth Day event as it looks to rejuvenate its support in KwaZulu-Natal ahead of next year’s local government elections.
The event will be held at King Zwelithini stadium in Umlazi, with the EFF saying it wants to pay a special focus on Umlazi to increase its seats in the eThekwini Municipality.
The party has tasked its eThekwini councillor Thami Xuma, who also chairs the Municipal Public Accounts Committee, to work on the ground in Umlazi to ensure that the party retains the almost 28,000 votes it received in the 2021 local government elections. Umlazi is the province’s biggest township, with a population of close to a million.
On Tuesday Xuma said that the party had identified Umlazi as a potential area where it can get more votes to boost its numbers in eThekwini in next year’s local government elections. He said the party wants to do well in all municipalities in the province, but eThekwini was crucial as it is the only Metro and has a big budget.
“Umlazi is the biggest township in the province so as a pro-poor party we have decided to target the township to sell our pro-poor policies. There are many people who still live in poor conditions in the informal settlements here, those are our people who resonate with our pro-poor policies so I will be here until elections next year engaging with them and listening to their problems,” said Xuma.
Out of 168, 000 votes the party received in the 2021 elections which gave the party 24 seats in eThekwini, Umlazi contributed about 30 000.
However, in last year’s general election, the party dropped to 11,000 votes in eThekwini.
The party performed badly in last year’s national general elections which prompted the national leadership to sack the provincial secretary Nkululeko Ngubane and provincial treasurer Wakeni Chuma last month.
Ngubane was replaced by Vukani Ndlovu who is also a councillor in eThekwini.
A source in the party said its poor performance last year was attributed to the lack of leadership that resonated and appealed to traditionalists – other parties like the MK Party and the IFP has this in Jacob Zuma and Velenkosini Hlabisa respectively.
“This is a very complex province. You may have good policies here, however, that alone will not help because people here also look at your personality and see whether you are part of them or not,” said a source.
