The EFF will launch its manifesto for the local government elections on Saturday, centring its campaign on fixing municipalities as the party looks to rebuild support after its losses in the 2024 national vote.Deputy president Godrich Gardee said the party will unveil the manifesto at Thohoyandou Stadium in Limpopo, timed to coincide with the EFF’s 13th anniversary celebrations.Gardee said the party will name 213 mayoral candidates, though he indicated the names are not likely to be released at Saturday’s launch given the size of the list. The candidates will be made public soon, he told Business Day ahead of the event. The manifesto will focus on improving municipal governance with commitments on water, electricity, roads, job creation and expanded access to municipal land, Gardee said. It will also pledge 24-hour health services at the local level. The party plans to argue that three decades of governance by the ANC have left municipalities unable to deliver basic services.“The EFF plan is to turn things around on issues that matter most to people,” Gardee said.The launch comes as parties step up campaigning before the November 4 municipal elections, a vote expected to produce another round of coalition governments in the country’s largest cities and towns.The EFF’s national support has slipped since its 2019 peak. The party won 9.52% of the vote in the 2024 general election, down from 10.79% in 2019, cutting its seats in the National Assembly to 39 from 44.In the 2021 municipal elections, the EFF took about 10.4% of the proportional representation vote nationally, an increase from the previous local vote, though it did not win outright control of any municipality. That election left 66 councils hung, making coalition deals central to local governance.Since then, the EFF has acted as a kingmaker in several municipalities, joining coalition arrangements at points in Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni and propping up other hung councils as alliances shifted.Asked whether immigration would feature prominently in the campaign, Gardee said border management and migration policy fall under national government, not municipalities.“The EFF is not in charge of the borders. The EFF is not in charge of the army and the police. The EFF is not in charge of home affairs,” he said, adding local elections should centre on service delivery and municipal administration.Business Day