Buoyed By Polls, S.Africa's Radical Left Party Launches Election Campaign

Durban, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Feb, 2024) Rising in the polls and vying to become South Africa's leading opposition party, the radical leftist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) will launch its electoral campaign on Saturday ahead of a hotly contested vote.

Julius Malema, the party's firebrand leader, is expected to unveil its manifesto at a stadium seating about 55,000 people in the country's third-largest city of Durban.

Renowned for its theatrics, the EFF has gained prominence advocating for radical reforms including land redistribution and the nationalisation of key economic sectors to tackle deep inequalities that persist in the country more than three decades after the end of apartheid.

"Malema is popular because he has risen up as a person who openly challenges authority head on for failing to liberate black people," independent political analyst Sandile Swana told AFP.

The choice of Durban to launch the campaign is significant as the port city is located in the eastern KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa's second most populous and a key electoral battleground.

The ruling African National Congress (ANC) is set to launch its own manifesto at the same venue in two weeks.

Malema, 42, founded the EFF in 2013, after he was thrown out of the ANC, where he served as youth leader, for fomenting divisions and bringing the party into disrepute.