Is Malema coming undone?
The EFF has always been synonymous with controversy. With their red berets and designer overalls, the entire EFF brand has been built on provoking their opponents and disrupting the status quo. It is how they have managed to stay on the media's radar and under the skins of political parties much bigger than them.
Until now, their strategy has worked. It has often allowed them to dictate the political agenda. And as analyst Dawie Scholtz illustrates in this week's briefing, by-election results show that the party's support continues to grow after the national election in May this year, when they won a significant portion of votes from previous ANC voters.
But the EFF has of late been under increasing pressure out of various corners, and judging by his latest utterances, it looks like party leader Julius Malema is coming unstuck. Assistant-editor Pieter du Toit unpacks the reasons behind the EFF's latest scattergun approach and the amaBhungane team provides more details of Malema's dubious business dealings.
Alet Janse van Rensburg
News24 opinions editor
All over the show: How Malema is trying to divert attention
Pieter du Toit
Recent times have been quite eventful for Julius Malema, the effervescent leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), the party he founded alongside like-minded colleagues after their expulsion from the ANC in 2013. The party seems to be discharging its load of vitriol, populism and racism in all directions every second day.
Tender comrades part 1: Trailing the Juju tractor
Micah Reddy and Stefaans Brümmer
A tractor the EFF “donated” to supporters in Limpopo; the implausibility of an earlier alibi for payments to Julius Malema-linked Mahuna Investments; and a newly-revealed payment to another Malema company – the evidence is stacking up that the party and its leader took kickbacks from a massive City of Johannesburg contract.
SA is realigning politically and these by-elections prove it
Dawie Scholtz
South Africa is in the process of a political realignment. The prevailing trend in this realignment is the growth of the extremes in our politics at the expense of our more centrist parties. The 2019 election was the first step in this direction and the trend has only accelerated since the election in May.