The DA and the EFF aren’t exactly tight, but in the Tshwane and Johannesburg metros, they have banded together to fight their common enemy.

Then again, a shared hatred for the ANC will only go so far, and now the cooperation agreement looks set to implode as the relationship between the parties further deteriorates.

It seems that the DA’s entire campaign ahead of May’s elections involves disparaging their rival parties (you’ve seen the billboards), and the EFF aren’t taking kindly to constantly being called corrupt.

Reporting below via City Press:

EFF leader Julius Malema gave a stern warning at a media briefing on Wednesday that when the right time came, his party would not succumb to DA rhetoric, inferring that the EFF could work with any party other than the DA.

An irate Malema told the media that the DA had crossed the line in its posture against the EFF with regard to the criminal case it had lodged against the party for its alleged involvement in the looting of VBS Mutual Bank, blaming the DA’s stance on “white arrogance”.

He said the DA could have had the courtesy to solicit the views of the party keeping it in power in the country’s richest metros, but instead, it took a position “and they just call us names”.

Malema was particularly peeved about a campaign by the DA in which it used SMS messages, posters and telephone voice prompts to spread accusations that the EFF had stolen VBS money that had belonged mainly to poor people. “The people making it possible for you to have power, you must have some decency when you deal with them,” said Malema.

Well, Julius, if your party wasn’t the very definition of hypocritical, the DA wouldn’t have the ammo.

That being said, the DA should probably start focusing on what they offer, rather than the shortfalls of the other parties.

Anyone else get the SMS spam messages yesterday?

Back to Julius and his irate response last week:

“And then, after putting up those posters, they are going to come to us and say: ‘Let us vote together in Tshwane municipality.’ After insulting us like that?

“Then you South Africans say that the EFF must vote with the DA, otherwise they are bringing the ANC through the back door … We cannot be insulted like that.”

He said that the DA would not defeat the ANC in Gauteng and govern the province unless the EFF played a role.

The DA are clearly refusing to back down on the corruption angle, with DA spokesperson Solly Malatsi saying that “the ANC and the EFF are in a de facto coalition of corruption nationally”.

He pointed to the Bosasa scandal and the VBS Bank scandal as evidence, garnering a foreboding response from Malema:

“They must enjoy it while it lasts because there are going to be problems, and they must know that.”

Wow, who would have thought that the DA / EFF alliance would eventually come crashing down?

Given how South Africa’s youth intend to vote later this year, both the DA and the EFF might want to reconsider their war of words.

[source:citypress]