Twenty-Five Battalion, The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) Changing the Decorum in the South African Parliament, 2014 to 2018

Mohau Soldaat ORCID iD

Issue: Vol.6  No.1 Issue Article 1 pp.1-11
DOI: https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.2025611 | Published online 22nd January, 2025
© 2024 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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Since the twilight of apartheid, the African National Congress (ANC) has dominated the politics of South Africa. Post-1994, the first democratic parliament adopted the British style of engagements, wherein people would always obey and follow the rules of the law without critiquing the law. In some instances, the law will be used to protect those who were at fault, be it corruption or misdemeanour. In the general elections of 2014, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) which was formed in 2013 got 25 seats in the National Assembly. The arrival of the EFF in the National Assembly is aimed at challenging the decorum of the parliamentary proceedings. The aim of this study was therefore to locate the EFF in South African politics.  The study used desktop document analysis, which allowed the author to use various sources, viz. newspaper clippings, articles, books and interviews from various media houses. The study concluded that the EFF, in its first five years in the National Assembly, played a crucial role in challenging the decorum, wherein, identity could not mean the British style, but rather what they (EFF) represented. Broadly, the study contributes to the growing contemporary history scholarship, with special reference ti the EFF. Thus, political formations post-1994 should be studied for what they are, not what researchers would wish for them to be.

Keywords: Decorum, Parliament, Land Expropriation Without Compensation, National Assembly

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Mohau Soldaat is a lecturer for History Education at University of Limpopo. His research is more into contemporary history, children in the struggle against apartheid (in South African case) or colonial wars. Soldaat has attended regional, and national conference and presented various papers.  His recent publication includes; Julius Malema from Masupatsela to the Formation of the Economic Freedom Fighters EFF Historical Narrative, 2024, by African Historical Review. In 2023, he co-authored a Book Chapter with Professor Chitja Twala, titled, Lesotho migrant workers in the Orange Free State farms, from the late 19th century to the 1940s. In book: The Road to Democracy in South Africa, Volume 8, Part 2 (pp.201-224).

Soldaat, Mohau. “Twenty-Five Battalion, The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) Changing the Decorum in the South African Parliament, 2014 to 2018,” E-Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences 6, no.1 (2025): 1-11. https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.2025611

© 2025 The Author(s). Published and Maintained by Noyam Journals. This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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