The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) maintains their stance on President Cyril Ramaphosa, stating he continues to be a president “in the interest of capital.” According to the EFF’s National Spokesperson, Sinawo Tambo, speaking to the SABC outside Cape Town City Hall, Ramaphosa has done nothing to alter the party’s view of him.
Tambo’s comments are a direct contradiction of EFF member, Mbuyiseni Ndlozi’s views expressed in a tweet in which he writes, “This man is not what we have been told he is. He is truly up to something. Of all SA heads of state, he has come out as the most committed to policies that matter for the most genuine transformation of the living conditions of our people.”
Ndlozi on the X platform continues to argue, “The left needs to accept this, and rethink its position towards him! Notwithstanding Marikana, Phala Phala, CR is on a journey less travelled by many in his position. Worse, under GNU conditions! No puppet of white monopoly capitalism speaks and acts like he does! Sela! (sic)”.
This man is not what we have been told he is. He is truly up to something. Of all SA heads of state, he has come out as the most committed to policies that matter for the most genuine transformation of the living conditions of our people.
– NHI
– BELA…— Mbuyiseni Ndlozi (@MbuyiseniNdlozi) February 3, 2025
However, Tambo disagrees with the view that there is a need, at least for the party, to rethink its position towards Ramaphosa.
“There is nothing that has changed (after) an effective analysis of him. He has shown himself to be in the interest of capital, trying to pursue massive privatisation of our State-owned Enterprises,” says Tambo.
“He’s been dependent on foreign direct investment, and entrenched the policy of taking loans from the IMF and the World Bank, he has still not accounted for the massacre of the workers in Marikana. So, in the EFF, nothing has changed fundamentally in him as a character and as an individual. And we have given him that opportunity and history will remember him accordingly,” he adds.
Ndlozi, whose future within the EFF has been a much-talked-about issue in local politics, recently tendered his resignation as member of parliament of the EFF but did not resign as a member. He notes in the tweet about Ramaphosa, the NHI and the BELA Acts as some of the policies which indicated Ramaphosa was “no puppet of white monopoly…”
Tambo, however, says even the ascension of the National Health Insurance bill into law, which the ANC has argued to be a pro-poor policy, does not warrant a change of perspective of Ramaphosa.
“The NHI has got its limitations. There is no proper analysis of how it’s going to be sustained and funded. Already, we are told they have made a backroom deal with the Democratic Alliance to drop certain sections of the NHI and he has agreed to that. So, you can see there is no commitment even to the legislation that he signed, that even his party supported with its majority in Parliament. So, there is no commitment. The Bela Act is not implemented even now. He’s succumbing to delays that have been pressurised on him by his coalition partners and his puppet masters. So, there is nothing that has fundamentally changed,” elaborated Tambo.
President Ramaphosa will deliver his first State of the Nation Address under the Government of National Unity this evening.
