Scandal hits Africa’s ‘party for the poor’

Bloomberg

The top leaders of South Africa’s Economic Freedom Fighters, famous for abrasive politics and brawling in parliament, have become embroiled in a string of scandals that has dented the party’s efforts to portray itself as a voice of the poor ahead of elections in May.
Deputy party leader Floyd Shivambu allegedly secured funds looted from the failed VBS Mutual Bank, a probe commissioned by the central bank and reports by the AmaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism show. Party president Julius Malema and Shivambu also unduly benefited from municipal vehicle fleet contracts worth $69 million, according to another AmaBhungane report. The EFF says there’s no proof its officials did anything wrong.
Yet its public relations woes are good news for the ruling African National Congress, which hemorrhaged support during former President Jacob Zuma’s scandal-marred tenure and is trying to rebuild its image under new leader Cyril Ramaphosa. The Democratic Alliance, the main opposition party, faces its own difficulties, including infighting in its Cape Town stronghold and challenges in governing cities it won from the ANC in a 2016 municipal vote.
“What has definitely set the EFF back is the VBS bank scandal,” said Dirk Kotze, a political science professor at the University of South Africa. “The party has up to now, and relatively successfully, presented itself as the anti-corruption voice in South Africa.”
Fifty-six percent of 1,017 registered voters surveyed by the South African Institute of Race Relations between November 26 and December 4 said they supported the ANC, up from 52 percent in September. Backing for the EFF dipped to 11 percent from 13 percent, and for the DA to 18 percent from 23 percent. Based on a 69 percent turnout, the institute projected that the ANC would end up with 59 percent of votes cast, the DA 22 percent and the EFF 10 percent.
Malema, a 37-year-old former leader of the ANC’s youth wing, founded the EFF five years ago after he was expelled from the ruling party for criticising Zuma and his policies. The EFF’s calls to nationalise land, banks and mines have found resonance among the poor.