OPINIONISTA: Why does the EFF support the power given to tribal chiefs and kings? By Ashley Nyiko Mabasa
The Economic Freedom Fighters’ election manifesto is founded on the exaggeration of political freedom in South Africa and inconsistencies with the political programme it has adopted – the Freedom Charter.
Modern European democracy did not come as a gift: It was an internal battle of the working class against the tyranny-authority of traditional leadership in the form of the European monarchies. For as long as despotic traditional authorities installed by colonial authorities exist, complete political freedom in South Africa cannot be attained. About 38% of South Africans reside in rural areas governed by both elected municipalities and traditional authorities.
The EFF’s manifesto, in the foreword by “Commander-In-Chief” Julius Malema, claims that it represents 25 years of a democratic breakthrough. CIC Malema further asserted that political freedom in South Africa has not rendered economic emancipation. Therefore, the EFF is embarking on a fight for economic freedom. The question remains, what does political freedom mean for the EFF?
The fact that traditional leadership continues to rule rural people shows that the struggle for attaining political freedom is not complete. So, the EFF’s conceptualisation of attainment of political freedom is faulty and misleading, because “semi-autonomous tribal authorities” were created to control black people in the countryside, and 25 years into democracy, we continue to be ruled by unelected institutional bodies of traditional authorities.
The EFF’s manifesto here appears to insinuate that it supports traditional authorities mainly because it wants to reconcile the “African way of life, customs and norms” – meaning traditional leaders. The EFF misses the point. Today’s organised traditional authorities are the culmination of colonisation and of Apartheid history.
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