There has been a great deal of concern and rather excessive interest expressed in Julius Malema’s  new Economic Freedom Fighters Party (EFF). A number of commentators, besides many on the left believe that this is a significant development. Some groupings on the left even think that a working relationship should be established with the EFF, especially in view of its socialist styled program.  But one should firstly look at Malema’s history to put things in their proper perspective.  He has a chequered and uninviting  background, flaunting a very lavish lifestyle – Gucci outfits, a Breitling watch, driving luxury cars and drinking expensive whiskies, as well as having owned  a couple of up-market mansions and a farm in Limpopo. Besides this, he has displayed  an arrogant posture of amongst other things, swearing at a journalist and calling  him a “bloody agent”.  He has had his assets seized and auctioned off at the behest of the SA Revenue Service for failing to pay his taxes. He now also faces the more serious charges of money laundering, fraud, racketeering and  corruption. This hardly speaks of a man committed to the noble goal of socialism and equality for all. As for the program of the EFF, having been expelled from the ANC Malema and his ilk could hardly have opted for a program more conservative than that of the ANC. It is therefore  logical that he and his cohorts have decided upon an organisation with leftist, revolutionary sounding goals.  Whether the EFF will indeed be sincerely committed to these goals remains to be seen. As with the South African Communist Party, which ostensibly has a socialist programme but which is bound by a never-ending pursuit for the completion of the nebulous “national democratic revolution”, so the EFF program appears to be mere rhetoric which in practice, may be only a populist support-farming device.

Much has been said about the ANC’s fears of  how much support the EFF will win at the polls. We are told  that the EFF has a fair amount of backing in Mpumalanga and Limpopo that can damage the ANC in the forthcoming elections. It is clear that the EFF is looking towards the youth vote. But in the first place, from its targeted constituency,  there is a question of how many of this youth will actually register and be eligible to vote. The boasts that the EFF is the new government in waiting are hardly likely to be borne out in fact and in deed.

The legal charges faced by Malema derive from  the  Public Protector’s report on the tender scandal in the Limpopo province.  He is due to formally appear in court, with others, to be tried on these charges.  (His trial has been postponed to September next year). Malema  has already argued that these charges are baseless and they are politically motivated. He thus seems to believe or hopes that they will be thrown out of court,   a la Jacob Zuma. Politically motivated or not, these charges are very real, which demand  more than  allegations of a political conspiracy  for an answer. There is the distinct possibility that he will be convicted on some, if not all of them  and the  EFF will then have to contend with the serious problem of its chief protagonist and leader sitting in jail. This is a possibility anticipated by some in the EFF who now say that if convicted, Malema will lead them from prison!

An important question that sorely needs to be asked is who is financing the EFF? Malema and his cohorts have no easy access to  money from their targeted supporters, who are from the have-nots in society. They can hardly contribute much towards the expenses already  lavished  on large scale rallies, motorcades, t-shirts and berets, etc. Otherwise, there are only two possibilities. The first would be business sources who wish to weaken the ANC by splitting its vote, without fear that the EFF will amount to a real political force to be reckoned with. The second is wealthy sources within the ANC who have been sidelined by Zuma and who previously were favourably disposed towards Malema and his ilk for their own reasons. These may be hoping that a substantial drop in the ANC’s electoral support will spell the end of  Zuma’s regime. There is no pro-socialist agenda here.  The EFF thus has the appearance of being nothing more than a tool in the hands of others with their own interests.

Malema and his EFF appear to be an extremely dubious ally of the struggle for socialist democracy. It has already displayed  Stalinist tactics in its activities and there  is the real danger that this organisation will end up as representing  nothing more than the emergence of a rabid and dangerous, counter-revolutionary youth movement, prone to act in whatever way, at the instance of the highest bidder.