South Africa

Endless defections, lies, distrust and inconsistency undermine SA’s populist parties

10 Nov 2024

Recent events in our politics have revealed some of the underlying tensions in parties like MK, the EFF and the Patriotic Alliance, that may undermine their efforts to win elections in the future. Coming so soon after the re-election of a populist president in the US, this shows the importance of proper party organisation. It may also show how difficult building a party can be if there are high levels of distrust in an organisation.

Last week the former chair of the EFF, Dali Mpofu, left the party and joined MK. He said in various interviews that despite being a senior member of the EFF, he had played a major role in the formation of MK. In one discussion he said he owed his allegiance to the ANC, the EFF and MK all at once.

This follows a more recent trend, where people like Busisiwe Mkhwebane, Mzwanele Manyi and others have left the EFF, and moved to MK.

Finally, on Sunday, MK itself confirmed that former EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu who defected to the MK party to be its national organiser would now be the new secretary-general of the party.

Last week it was reported that four Patriotic Alliance MPs had resigned from that party’s caucus.

The party’s leader Gayton McKenzie said this was a strategic move ahead of the local government elections in 2026.

While this might be so, all of these resignations may underscore the problems these parties are having in building durable structures.

Dishonesty

In various cases, the people who defect or leave a party, and their leaders, make comments which show that they cannot be trusted.

For example, Mpofu is clear that he was working with MK while also a member of the EFF.

While some may say he is being honest, why was he not honest before? He is only being honest now because it suits him. He did not tell EFF members when MK was being formed that he was involved.

In the case of Mkhwebane, she said she was leaving the EFF and Parliament because she was going to rest.

But she was lying. She joined MK just a week later. Why the lie?

In the case of the PA, McKenzie may say that these MPs are resigning ahead of the local elections. But why would he have appointed them as MPs in the first place, knowing they were only going to serve for four months?

The importance of having consistency in structures like Parliament cannot be overstated.

In 2018, four years after the EFF first entered Parliament, Gareth van Onselen (then at the Institute for Race Relations) pointed out that 60% of their MPs had resigned or were removed from their positions.

This turnover appears to have continued and may well have played a role in preventing the party from gaining support in the last elections.

Farcical

In MK the situation has become farcical.

Last week the party’s secretary-general, Sifiso Maseko, resigned.

The previous secretary-general, Arthur Zwane, was removed by Zuma after two weeks in the job. Zuma appointed Maseko, then removed Maseko and reinstated Zwane. He then fired Zwane and reappointed Maseko, who has now resigned and been replaced by Shivambu.

At least for the moment.

As is well-known, in our politics, whoever plays the role of secretary-general or its equivalent, is vital to a party.

This means that any kind of explanation from party leaders that firing or reinstating or replacing or appointing a new person to this position must be understood for what it is. A simple excuse for political infighting.

The point is, in politics, organisation is vital.

People who stay in positions for a long time, representing the party in different chambers, get better at the job. They do a better job for their party and thus become more effective.

As voters then see these parties performing well, they are attracted to them.

When a party cannot retain people in top positions, it shows that the leadership is not united.

More importantly, it shows that party leaders are more interested in their own positions than the concerns of voters.

Lies and distrust

However, in the case of the PA, MK and the EFF, another factor might be about to create a huge problem, which could handicap them for some time to come.

One of the important features of almost all of these examples is that people have lied.

Mkhwebane lied when she claimed she would never leave the EFF, and then said she was leaving it to “rest”, only to join MK.

Mpofu was being less than honest when he worked to create one party while remaining a member of another.

This creates a situation in which EFF leader Julius Malema can no longer trust the people who are with him. This in turn is creating a situation in which he now has to, as the Sunday Times put it, “Clean House”.

This in turn can lead to situations where the leader of a party which has lost people through defections continues to damage the party by going on a witch hunt.

But the situation in the party which has received defectors, in this case MK, is not much better.

Zuma now has to work with people who left the ANC partly because of his own actions.

During 2016 and 2017 Shivambu was one of those who campaigned against Zuma.

At one point Shivambu told ANC MPs in Parliament that Zuma “is going to arrest all of you, he is going to lock you up, he is going to kill you. He has nothing to lose now”.

Mpofu was the chair of the EFF during this time.

Of course, it may be that populist parties do not need some kind of trust among their top leadership to succeed.

Trump

Certainly, Donald Trump went through several chaotic phases while he was president during his first term. And while he has new friends now, there is no certainty about what his future term will hold.

But perhaps one difference is that Trump took over a political machine with a massive historical brand and was able to turn that into his own image. Without the Republican Party already existing it is difficult to imagine him creating a new party or running as a third candidate.

In our case, while Zuma did lead the ANC, he has had to start MK almost from scratch, while Malema created the EFF which is now losing momentum.

All of that said, there is one advantage populists in our society may have, despite these problems among their top leaders.

As the ANC loses support, so many people simply are not voting. As is well known and often lamented, fewer than half of the people who can vote cast a ballot.

This means that the real test for populist parties is much easier, they simply have to energise enough votes to beat the other parties.

As the major party that is losing votes is the ANC, this may leave the door wide open for some of the populist parties.

Of course, you also cannot get out the vote without proper organisation. And for that, parties need solid, united leadership.

And this may turn out to be the real problem facing our more populist parties in the future. DM

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South Africa

Dishonesty

Farcical

Lies and distrust

Trump