New kid on the block EFF succeeds at the polls: What is next for them?

At 9am this morning after approximately 95% of votes had counted both nationally and in the Western Cape, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) had garnered 1,024,104 national votes (6.13%) and 40 629 (2.08%), placing them third place in both races.

EFF's Premier candidate in the Western Cape, Nazier Paulsen, is a lecturer at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. According to the party's website Paulsen was involved in the United Democratic Front in the 1980s and he became a member of the ANC when they were unbanned in the 1990s. Formerly a COPE member in the Western Cape, he is now convener of the EFF in the province. People’s Assembly caught up with him at the Western Cape Provincial Results Centre.

When asked if he was satisfied with how the EFF had performed in the province and nationally, Paulsen replied, “I would have hoped to have performed better in the Western Cape. At least enough to give us three or four seats but we’ll take what we can get. It lays a good foundation for us going forward. This is not a fly-by-night political party and we will build gradually… we’ve got 2016 local elections to work towards and in 2019 we will be a force to be reckoned with [in the Provincial and National elections].”

Paulsen added, “[Nationally] I think we are doing excellently. One has to be very realistic that the Economic Freedom Fighters are a nine month old political party with limited to no resources whatsoever. All our events, activities, programmes and campaigns were funded by members and some supporters. So what we’ve accomplished in the last nine months should be considered phenomenal. The fact that we don’t have any financial backers, no other South African party would have been able to do it.”

When pressed about what Paulsen will be working towards in the Province, he said he would be focused on changes to socio-economic policy as well as gender parity.

“What is important about the Economic Freedom Fighters is that we represent something very different. We have a pro-poor agenda. The inequality in the [Western Cape], not just the social and economic inequality but the gender inequality, is concerning. We currently have a provincial legislature where you have ten white men in the cabinet, 60% of them white. You have no female representation in cabinet,” said Paulsen.

“Then one looks at our communities and the experiences of black women in the townships and white woman in the suburbs – that inequality is still existing 20 years into democracy and we want those issues to be addressed.”

SAPA recently reported that Paulsen also wanted to create a provincial construction company that would provide 100 000 jobs. Paulsen went on to tell People’s Assembly that he would also ideally like to see the eradication of informal settlements.

“We want an end to these horrible conditions that people have to live in. We want an end to rampant unemployment and poverty. The prevalence of drugs and gangsterism in our communities is something we are very serious to agitate for within the provincial legislature… We will show our commitment to being the voice of the poor within the provincial legislature and more people will be convinced of our sincerity in that regard and be prepared to give us the vote going forward,” Paulsen said.

When asked where their support base lay, Paulsen told People’s Assembly they had managed to capture some of the youth vote, across the racial spectrum. He thinks going forward that will change and more middle-aged people will vote for the EFF.

With regards to the relationship between political parties and civil society and whether he was willing to work closely with NGOs in their advocacy campaigns, Paulsen responded that civil society and the EFF shared a common purpose of advocating for the upliftment of people living in poor communities.

However he added, “I was disappointed about one particular NGO Abahlali Masenjondolo who has actually agitated for conditions of the poor but has now joined forces with the very same political party that is responsible for the continued inequalities that exist in the Western Cape. But yes, we would want civil society to assist us going forward.”