The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) says it will lobby aggressively in Parliament to secure support from other political parties for the harmonisation of elections in South Africa.
Party leader Julius Malema announced the plan while delivering the closing address at the EFF’s elections preparatory workshop in Boksburg, arguing that the current electoral system is financially unsustainable and distracts political parties from service delivery.
Malema said frequent elections and by-elections have placed an excessive financial burden on political parties, forcing them to prioritise campaigning over governance.
“The DA is right — we need to fight this thing of permanent elections in South Africa,” Malema said. “Elections are not every two years. In South Africa, elections are every Wednesday. Every Wednesday there is a by-election, and a by-election is expensive, sometimes even worse than normal elections.”
He criticised the current system of replacing ward councillors through by-elections, calling it unnecessary and wasteful.
“Why should we have a by-election because an ANC councillor has died or been removed? That ward was won by the ANC, and people said the ANC must govern for five years,” Malema said.
“When that councillor dies, let the ANC bring another one. People chose the party, not the individual.”
Malema argued that South Africans vote primarily for political parties rather than individuals, pointing to cases where councillors who resign from parties and contest elections as independents often lose.
“It’s not true that people vote for individuals,” he said. “Those individuals leave the ANC, the DA or the EFF, stand as independents, and they lose. Because no one voted for them — they voted for the party.”
He said voters give parties a five-year mandate and should not be forced back to the polls mid-term due to internal party issues.
“You voted for that party to govern for five years. You didn’t vote for two years and then another election. So you must be stuck with what you voted for, so that in future you vote correctly,” Malema said.
The EFF is proposing a single election cycle every five years, during which national, provincial and local government elections would be held on the same day.
“Let’s call for one election day every five years,” Malema said. “We must vote for national, provincial and local government at once, so that for four years we focus on service delivery, not permanent campaigning.”
He said the fifth year should be used for parties to account to voters and campaign on their record in government.
“That is what campaigning is about,” he said. “This thing of putting black people in permanent elections is a distraction. It keeps us squabbling about candidates and wards instead of focusing on real issues.”
Malema said the proposal is one the EFF intends to actively sell to other political parties in Parliament.