The EFF as a ‘gateway party’? Briefing based on data from the 2021 South African local government elections

SUMMARY

This briefing offers three contributions concerning the voter profile of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), as witnessed at the 2021 elections in South Africa. The first is that the party’s support base is relatively well educated (compared to the ruling African National Congress). Second, well over 10% of party support comes from relatively high earners, as measured by income levels. Finally, EFF support appears notably ‘fluid’, as indicated by voters switching support to the EFF (mostly from the ANC) and away from the EFF (mostly towards smaller parties), ultimately suggesting an image of the EFF as a ‘gateway party’.

KEYWORDS:

• Voter fluidity
• voter profiles
• South African politics
• leftist politics
• Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF)

Acknowledgements

The author thanks the reviewers and Carin Runciman for their helpful guidance.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not affect the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was generously supported by the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung in South Africa.

Notes on contributors

Martin Bekker

Martin Bekker is an associate lecturer in the School of Electrical and Information Engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand, where he works at the intersection of social science and the ethics of artificial intelligence.