FORMER EFF MP Mbuyiseni Ndlozi caused a stir this week when he chose not to vote in the 2026 Local Government Elections, arguing that the black vote has become far too divided among different political parties.
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In a television interview, Ndlozi expressed major disappointment at the fragmentation of black political support, suggesting that parties are more concerned with their own interests than uniting the people.
I am very unhappy with the conduct of black people in South Africa. I don’t understand why we have accepted being so itemised. We won’t achieve everything. The amount of division… You can’t act if you are divided, he said.
However, his former comrade, EFF leader Julius Malema, heavily criticised this stance during a media briefing on Saturday, 7 November.
Malema questioned how someone who claims to be intelligent could turn their back on the ballot.
You will never leave the EFF and sound normal. How do you not vote and think it is normal? Your over-exaggerated self-importance, he said.
Calling the decision abnormal and counter revolutionary, Malema questioned how Ndlozi could work with the Thabo Mbeki Foundation given Mbeki’s sacrifices for democracy.
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How do you say to Thabo Mbeki; ‘I am thinking of not voting’? A man who almost died for you to vote. A man who lost his child for you to vote. A man whose father nearly died in prison for you to vote. A man whose mother led village women into liberation, and you come here to say all of those efforts are useless because you are thinking of not voting. And then you actually do it and not vote, he said.
Reminding South Africans of the power of their vote, Malema concluded: “The message must be that we must go out and vote; it doesn’t matter who you vote for,” he said.
