Former boxing champion, now independent political candidate Lovemore Ndou says while he is concerned about coalitions government, if given the mandate to lead after the May elections, he will consider entering a coalition with the Democratic Alliance (DA), but only if it changes some of its policies and priorities.

Ndou was speaking exclusively with Polity on Thursday, when he said he did not believe that South Africa was ready for a coalition government at national level. He said this was evident from coalitions in municipalities.

He noted that he was open to working with other independent candidates and unrepresented parties, however, he was adamant that he would never work with the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MK Party) and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).

He highlighted that the EFF leader Julius Malema was a “dangerous right-wing extremist”.

“…Malema wants people to believe that his party will give them everything for free, he wants people to believe that he is going to give them land and I say that anyone that thinks and believes that Malema is going to give them land is misguided,” he said.

Ndou believes that Malema will expropriate land and share it with his friends. He said Malema wanted to control banks and mines, calling it a kleptocracy.

He alleged that the EFF had already destroyed municipalities such as Ekurhuleni, adding that the party would destroy the country if it were to lead.

“I have issues with [these] parties. I have issues with the way they have been behaving, with what some of them stand for. [Meanwhile], the ANC is a failed party, that has nothing left to offer but blames all its failures on apartheid, and white capital monopoly,” he said.

He claimed that the ANC was a divided party.

He lashed out at the country’s former President Jacob Zuma, saying he was the most corrupt President and that President Cyril Ramaphosa was “useless”.

He said Zuma once sold the country to the Gupta brothers, warning citizens to be cautious about the MK Party. He said this party was a faction of the failed ANC.

“…so you can expect nothing from it, more failure. The problems we are facing today, some of them were created by Zuma’s administration,” he said.

He said the DA was formed out of splits and mergers and it had been the official opposition party for a long time, however, he said while the DA was good at pointing out the ANC’s wrongdoings it could not come up with solutions, saying this concerned him.

“I also look at the DA as a party for the middle class and it does not understand that meaningful change begins at the grassroots,” he said.

SKILLS AND TOOLS TO RUN SA

Ndou left South Africa for Australia in 1996 and said his return held no ulterior motive other than to serve South Africa and save South Africans from the crisis created by the ANC.

He said he was sacrificing a lot to come back to South Africa and stand as an independent candidate which he was doing because he was concerned with how the country was operating.

“Our country is on the brink of collapse and if nothing is done now eventually we are going to reach a point of no return and will most probably end up like neighbouring countries like Zimbabwe,” he said.

He said Australia had equipped him with tools to run a better South Africa.

His focus will be on job creation and education.

He noted that South Africa needed a better education system, highlighting that the current system was not different from the Bantu education system. He said the education system continued to fail citizens.