Old and new kids on the block

There were a number of new parties in the South African election. Two of these were the Agang SA and the EFF. My personal view is that Dr Ramphele could have made a huge contribution to the polical life. The party in fact failed to do what they set out to do. They only got one seat in the National Assembly and now they (just like Cope did after the previous election) are fighting over the leadership. News.iafrica.comhttp://news.iafrica.com/sa/944293.html writes:

It emerged last week that the party's chairperson Mike Tshishonga and Ramphele had registered conflicting fraud cases with the police to ascertain who opened an account for the party to receive a R200 000 refund from the Independent Electoral Commission.

A sad story.

The other ”new kid on the block” is of course the EFF and their Commander in Chief, Julius Malema. In his response to President Zuma after the State of Nation Address he really managed to stir the feelings of the house. A number of times other MP’s protested  - as far as I understand on silly points. For instance when Malema did not say ’honourable’ Cyril Ramaphosa.

The EFF has found a vacuum to the left of the ANC. To the right is only the DA and a number of very small parties. The question is whether the EFF will convince the masses. Malema and his gang are dressed in working clothes but are they really revolutionary? I doubt it. Malema’s speech was good, but will the party make a difference in the Parliament? Listen to the speech here. 

Another series of events are possibly even more interesting. Taking place outside the parliament. South Africa has just seen the end of the longest strike ever. The one in the platinum mines. Over five months. And the back drop is the Marikana massacre. (Malema also mentioned this in his speech. Claiming quite frankly that the ANC-led government murdered those mine workers.

I have written about this before. The old union for Mine workers (NUM) was not behind this strike but the new union, Amcu, was. They are not loyal to the ANC. I presume most of them vote for the EFF. NUM is part of COSATU. Which is in a tripartite alliance with the ANC and the SACP (the South African Communist Party). It has always been a mystery to me, how the Communist party can support a government which is definitely not communist.

When the strike in the platinum field ended it didn’t take long for another union to declare that they also will go on strike. This time it is the metal workers union (NUMSA). It is part of the COSATU but very critical to the tripartite alliance. They say they will form another election alliance. Will it be with the EFF? If so we are going to see major changes in the upcoming municipal elections in 2016.