ANC Secretary General Fikile Mbalula.
ANC Secretary General Fikile Mbalula took a swipe at EFF leader Julius Malema following the departure of his deputy Floyd Shivambu who served the EFF’s sinking ship with divorce papers to join President Jacob Zuma’s new political toy MK Party last week.
Mbalula was a key speaker during the funeral of the late Ntate Ngoako Simon Lekganyane, the father to intellectually pregnant and consummate ANC leader Soviet Lekganyane from Nchichane Village at Ga-Mamabolo in Limpopo.
When addressing mourners who were the majority of ANC members, he said Malema is not an opposition because he is alone and has lost wards in Polokwane because ANC Peter Mokaba Regional Chairperson and Polokwane Executive Mayor John Mpe has walloped him.
He also told the ANC supporters to pray for Shivambu because he might not last at the MK Party. Mbalula told the cheering ANC members that Shivambu is a gossiper who wanted to return to ANC but lied to people that he (Mbalula) doesn’t want him back at the ANC because he dislikes him (Shivambu). “I don’t know Floyd, he was brought to the ANC by Julius. I don’t know him, I never engaged with him about any ANC matter or mission,” Mbalula lambasted.
Meanwhile, the relationship between Malema and Shivambu took a nasty turn as they publicly lambasted each other. Malema announced that EFF secretary general Marshall Dlamini will take Shivambu’s responsibilities and serve as the EFF’s chief whip. The commander in chief of the red berets said his office will oversee the governance task unit when addressing EFF Gauteng provincial ground forces members in Soweto recently. He accused those who left the EFF of betraying his party’s revolution.
Malema was also shaken because the MK Party toppled from being the third largest political party after performing poorly during the national and provincial elections on May 29, 2024.
He used Monday’s address to lambast Shivambu who was appointed MK Party national organiser. EFF president also took a jab at EFF members who didn’t defend EFF on social media platforms.
Despite that Malema claimed that he was not made by social media it was puzzling that he is monitoring EFF senior members and their wives' comments on social media. He said those who opted to keep mum amid attacks on the EFF were silent enemies of the EFF.
“You must leave today because nothing is going to change now. Leave now, we have no reason to beg anyone. If you want to leave now. I stand before you, re-energised by your energy, fearless character, and taking on the enemy without thinking twice. They said I have been left alone. I can proudly say that I am not alone today,” Malema said.
“You are too busy after other resignations, popularising certain people that they must take over, yet they are silent when people decide to abandon you. Why can’t they choose you? Why do you keep on choosing the people who never choose you? When it is time for them to choose you, they are silent,” he said, without naming names.”
“They are choosing what looks like greener pastures. Many of them are opportunists because they want to see whether they will emerge in the upcoming third people’s assembly before they decide whether they will remain in the EFF or not.”
Malema said EFF members must unite and close ranks against any elements and use the December conference as an opportunity to destroy his party that he founded with Shivambu.
“Many of them are using the third people’s assembly as a threat. If they do not get elected, or are part of the leadership discussions, then they will leave and join the MK party. We must never be blackmailed by those who want to threaten us with leaving after the third people’s assembly. I want to say to them, ‘Leave now, so that we can know how many soldiers the EFF has left with. We must guard against opportunism; factionalism and self-entitlement; greed and all attempts to distract us from our generational mission.”
Shivambu also hit back at Malema who said people who left the EFF are sell-out and backstabbers who betrayed the EFF’s revolution.
“I will never betray the revolution, we are not in the business of trying to please each other's egos. We are in the business of building a revolutionary movement that is going to emancipate the black majority. We are unapologetic about that. It is what we stand for,” Shivambu said.
This week, Zuma gave praise to his former political rival Shivambu who last week dumped the party that he formed 11 years-ago with EFF president Julius Malema.
“This is a young and principled leader whose politics are scientific... Only my brother here (Floyd) understood what I said when I said I will die as a member of the ANC. It is because I love history. I know history. The ANC was established by our elders, our traditional leaders, our intellectuals and our pastors to defend the black person who was being suppressed by the white man,” Zuma said.
EFF leader Julius Malema.
MK Party national organiser Floyd Shivambu.
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