Shivambu’s exit was a ‘pre-emptive strike’- EFF’s Dlamini

EFF

Cape Town — As the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) gears up for its third National People’s Assembly, the party’s secretary-general, Marshall Dlamini, said Floyd Shivambu’s departure was not unexpected.

The year 2024 has been difficult for the EFF as the party has been hit hard by several high-profile departures including Shivambu, Dali Mpofu and Busisiwe Mkhwebane, who all left the red berets to join Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party.

According to EWN, Dlamini suggested that Shivambu’s departure from the party was a “pre-emptive strike” born out of the fear that he would not be elected as deputy president of the party at the upcoming elective conference.

Roughly 2,500 members are expected to attend the party’s elective conference this coming week.

Dlamini slammed Shivambu for failing to deliver on numerous tasks assigned to him while he was still part of the party and said Shivambu’s prospects were slim.

“Once they start hearing the branches speaking and don’t hear their names there, they start creating this environment, and that’s why some of them jump because they knew they weren’t going to make it to NASREC,” the report quoted Dlamini as saying.

According to IOL, the EFF’s National People’s Assembly will take place on Thursday as the party prepares to fill Shivambu’s position.

Dlamini, Godrich Garedee, Vuyani Pambo and Mbuyiseni Ndlozi have emerged as the top names to be picked as the new Deputy President.

The conference comes at a time when the EFF desperately needs to regroup following the departures. Besides Shivambu, Mpofu and Mkhwebane, several other senior members of the EFF also left the party including Alfred Motsi and Mpho Morolane.

EFF’s national spokesperson, Leigh-Ann Matthys, said the nominations for the position will be confirmed at the party’s conference.

“We currently do not know. As you know, nominations are made from the floor during the conference. It is only in that moment, during the nomination process itself, that we will know,” Mathys said.

She said that the conference would address the wave of resignations but denied that it was ‘bleeding’ members. She said the conference would focus only on the party’s performance in the past five years and find resolutions aimed at accelerating electoral growth.

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Compiled by Matthew Petersen

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