EFF’s Limpopo chairman defects to ANC

The ANC in Limpopo has unveiled the EFF's chairperson in the province as its newest recruit - and he is not a first-time party member.

The ANC in Limpopo has unveiled the EFF’s chairperson in the province as its newest recruit on the eve of the local government elections.

Mike Mathebe said he has learnt just how cold it is outside the ANC, and would rather return to the party he left believing in “certain theories’.

ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe said at a media briefing in Polokwane on Thursday that Mathebe was welcomed back into the party because that was where he belonged.

“We have different programmes in the ANC of too much of internal democracy, and people fight because we open processes up, and people find out that when you go away you discover that you don't have a say, you deal with commands.”

The ruling party intensified its campaigns in the province this week, sending high profile government officials and party representatives to townships and villages to woo voters.

Political analysts consider Limpopo one of EFF’s strongest support bases, projecting the party would make some in-roads in some wards.

However the party’s potential to win a municipality was unlikely.

The timing of Mathebe’s return to the ANC is likely meant to cast doubt about the EFF in the minds of voters.

“There is not going to be any practicality in terms of what the EFF is thinking about their policies and so on, I don't want to dwell much on the theory, I want to practice, that’s why I came back to the ANC,” Mathebe said.

@ThetoThakane

Election Bureau