Power struggle intensifies ahead of EFF elective conference

A fierce battle for the second-most powerful position in the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has erupted ahead of the party’s third elective conference at the end of the year, pitting deputy leader Floyd Shivambu against secretary general Marshall Dlamini.

The EFF is expected to convene its National People’s Assembly in December to elect new leaders and review some of its policies.

Five KwaZulu-Natal regions have come out against Shivambu following the leaking of VBS Mutual Bank kingpin Tshifhiwa Matodzi’s damning affidavit, which implicates EFF leader Julius Malema and Shivambu in receiving bribes totalling R16  million.

The 11 accused in the VBS case, including former ANC Limpopo secretary Danny Msiza, appeared in the Pretoria high court on Monday, and Matodzi is expected to give evidence against them during the trial. 

The matter has been postponed to 14  August, when Msiza and one of his co-accused, “tenderpreneur” Kabelo Matsepe, will argue an application for a separation of trial. They will also apply for a stay of prosecution.

Shivambu’s brother, Brian, received about R16  million in payments from the bank, with the money allegedly benefitting both Floyd and Malema, but it appears that it is only Shivambu who will pay the price at the EFF’s meeting in December.

EFF leaders in KwaZulu-Natal expressed a common sentiment that Shivambu’s nomination for re-election should not be supported or seconded and that he should make way for Dlamini.

They said Shivambu has failed to meet leadership expectations and that they would seek to have him removed from the party’s second-to-top position after he failed to mobilise support in the province for the 29  May national and provincial elections.

“Matodzi’s affidavit is a nail in the coffin for the deputy president because, if you remember, we have always been wary of VBS coming between his aspirations to level up to the presidency. Now that just means he will be sacrificed because of the direct implications in this mess,” one regional leader said.

Another leader said Shivambu’s loss of support was evident even before the rise of former ANC president Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe party, which helped to reduce the EFF’s support in the province from 9.96% in 2019 to 2.56% this year.

Shivambu was sent to KwaZulu-Natal as a team convener and tasked with preparing for the May elections, with a mandate to seize power from the ANC and the Inkatha Freedom Party. 

He was also mandated to stabilise the EFF’s ground forces after factional battles threatened to undermine its previous electoral gains. This included bringing back party members who had left after a rift between Dlamini and the EFF’s former provincial chair, Vusi Khoza.

Shivambu has been criticised in some quarters after struggling to fill the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban for an EFF event and failing to unite structures in the province, which resulted in him being redeployed to the Eastern Cape.

One KwaZulu-Natal leader said the confirmation that Shivambu had benefited from the now-defunct VBS bank had become a “threat to the party” and forced them to back Dlamini, who had been mobilising support for his future in the party.

“Twice is problematic; not long ago, parliament found him [Shivambu] guilty of this, and now Matodzi links him again. The CIC [commander-in-chief, Malema] better do the right thing and have him removed because his fingers are more tainted than all of them.” 

The leader accused Shivambu of being dishonest and not the right person to advance and grow the party. These sentiments were echoed by the other four regional leaders in KwaZulu-Natal.

Tensions between them and Shivambu have been brewing since he was accused by former eThekwini ward councillor Mthandeni Zungu of misusing the province’s election funds.

But provincial leader Mongezi Twala has dismissed suggestions of rise of factionalism in the party, arguing that the EFF was focused on rebuilding the party after its poor showing at the polls.

Dlamini’s loyalists are looking to present MP Mbuyiseni Ndlozi as the secretary general candidate to replace him, with support from the party’s student wing, some Gauteng structures and those in KwaZulu-Natal.

“It is the will of ground forces to have commissar Ndlozi in the top six, and we have agreed that we will nominate him from the floor, but it only works if the leadership agrees. Remember, the slate is given by national leadership, and we have to accept it in the name of democratic centralism,” the leaders said.

“The conference is only a process; we all await the slate, but do hope commissar Ndlozi makes the cut. The man has showcased his ability to lead.” 

Dlamini, a close ally of Malema, was nominated as the party’s premier candidate for KwaZulu-Natal, another indication of his growing stature in the EFF. This is despite his being sentenced last month to 18 months in prison, suspended for five years, for assaulting a police officer in parliament in 2019. 

Malema’s control over the party appears to be unchallenged, despite its electoral losses in May and the collapse of its coalition agreements at city level with the ANC.

When asked why Malema was not facing consequences for the party’s poor showing at the polls, one party member said: “Because he would kick us out if we attempted.”

In May, during a media briefing after the elections, Malema said he would not resign as the leader of the EFF, expressed confidence in his position and dismissed any notion of panic in the party.

In a bid to stamp out factionalism in the party, its central command team said it would clamp down on any individual campaigning for positions.

At its second elective conference in 2019, EFF members raised concerns that the elective conference was being reduced to a “rubber-stamp” affair where the positions of the central command team — the highest decision-making body — had already been decided.

EFF provincial leaders have signalled their support for party chairperson Veronica Mente to return to her position unopposed.

The EFF’s conference in December will be attended by voting delegates from provincial branches, mandated by the party’s national assembly guidelines, which are to be released soon after the party’s leadership concludes its war council meetings.

Party spokesperson Leigh-Ann Mathys did not respond to questions from the M&G.