Malema says EFF would join GNU only if DA and FF Plus withdrew

Malema sets conditions for joining a GNU

Speaking on the campaign trail, Malema framed the EFF’s participation in national or local coalition government as conditional rather than automatic. He said the party was not opposed to joining a GNU but insisted on specific exits by other parties before it would enter government.

“We are not opposed to participating in GNU. If Helen (Zille) walks tomorrow, and that other one of Correctional Services, the Freedom Front, (Pieter) Groenewald, walk, we’ll go inside,”

He added that the party would not sacrifice its political principles for a place in government:

“We don’t play with power. We get it, we use it to benefit the black masses of our people,”

Accusations and historical grievances

Malema said there were historic reasons the EFF could not share a GNU with certain parties, invoking the deaths of liberation struggle figures mentioned in his remarks. He rejected a government that included those he associated with such killings.

“We don’t want a GNU that has got murders in it,”

He referenced Solomon Mahlangu by name when describing those grievances, and raised the moral difficulty of entering government with parties he said were linked to past executions of struggle activists:

“How do we explain that to Solomon Mahlangu, who had to be hanged even when the international community was saying ‘Do not hang children’? You are asking us to sit in cabinet with people who killed children,”

“Children who did nothing but asked to be free. And they were not asking for freedom to vote, they were asking for freedom to be children. And you killed them. And those are the people we must sit with. We are not going to allow that,”

Response to Helen Zille and claims of outside control

Malema directly addressed recent comments by DA Johannesburg mayoral candidate Helen Zille, who has said she would not enter a coalition with the EFF. He characterised the DA’s stance as driven by hostility to the EFF’s independence from white control.

“Helen Zille’s hatred of us is that we’re the only party which cannot be controlled by white people,”

He also rejected suggestions that the EFF was an unsuitable coalition partner because of its conduct, contrasting that critique with his view of the ANC’s internal state:

“They say they can’t work with chaotic parties, but the ANC is the most chaotic party,”

Election focus and service delivery promise

Malema emphasised that the EFF’s immediate priority was the election itself, not pre-emptive coalition arrangements. He said the party was campaigning to win and that service delivery would be central to its agenda if it secured victory.

“Well, we go to elections to win. I’m not in that space to think what happens after. I don’t know what’s going to happen. All I know is that we’re going to win,”

He also said the EFF would negotiate with other parties only if it did not win outright:

“And after we win, we’re going to deliver services to our people. If it happens we didn’t win, we have to talk to other people who will deal with those matters at that time,”

Broader political backdrop

The remarks come amid wider friction between the ANC and the DA. The source material notes tensions after ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula raised the possibility of reviewing the relationship between the parties following the DA’s support for the Independent Electoral Commission’s position opposing the ANC’s bid to reinstate 181 disqualified councillor candidates. The dispute has increased strain within the GNU as parties campaign ahead of the November 4 local government elections.

Coalition discussions and the prospect of shared municipal or national governance are common features of South African politics in the run-up to local elections. Parties often emphasise red lines or deal-breakers in public statements as part of electoral positioning; Malema’s comments set out explicit conditions the EFF would require before entering a GNU.

What this means going forward

Malema’s public stance clarifies the EFF’s position: openness to participation on condition of the DA and FF+ withdrawing, rejection of compromises on historical grievances, and a stated primary focus on winning and delivering services. How other parties respond to those conditions and whether the DA or FF+ adjust their own positions will shape coalition possibilities after the November 4 polls.

The report was filed by Hope Ntanzi for IOL News.