EFF on alert against infiltration by MK party

As the Economic Freedom Fighters gears up for its third elective conference in December, members have been warned to be aware of infiltration from uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party “agents” who could potentially replicate the internal divisions that once undermined the ANC Youth League during the EFF’s own ascent a decade ago. 

EFF provincial officials who attended a Monday meeting with the party’s leadership said they were urged to be on the watch against the threat of an exodus in the wake of the Floyd Shivambu’s move to the MK party. The EFF’s former deputy president had led the recruitment of ANC members to the EFF in 2014.

“We were warned not to let Shivambu’s defection to the uMkhonto weSizwe party do to the Economic Freedom Fighters what the EFF did to the ANC Youth League when Julius Malema was expelled, in those exact words,” said one provincial leader.

The MK party, led by former president Jacob Zuma, who was himself expelled from the ANC in July, has appointed Shivambu as its national organiser. 

MK party secretary Sifiso Maseko said last week that Shivambu’s new job includes building branches and regions nationwide, overseeing research and policy development and appointing members to parliament and to the provincial legislatures. 

When Malema and Shivambu established the EFF in 2013 after their expulsion from the ANC, the new party quickly attracted disillusioned youth league members who were unhappy with the ruling party’s leadership. 

Malema was ejected for making statements deemed to have undermined the authority and unity of the ANC.

Then ANC youth league North West chairperson Keobakile “Papiki” Babuile and Mpho Ramakatsa, a former cadre of the original uMkhonto weSizwe — the ANC’s military wing — were among the leaders who defected to the EFF with Malema. Babuile has been in the Red Berets’ provincial ranks. 

The outcome of the December conference is expected to have significant implications for the EFF’s future direction, with factions lobbying party branches for support, and a push for MP and former national spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi to be elected into the top six despite his close proximity to Shivambu.

“Ndlozi has chosen his side and we will push a slate that has him as SG [secretary general]. The branches are aware and they are ready to accept that slate. We just hope he does not decline the nomination,” said one leader, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Provincial leaders were summoned to Johannesburg for Monday’s meeting with Malema and secretary general Marshall Dlamini as the party licks its wounds after Shivambu’s departure, and three months after the EFF’s national support sharply declined in 29 May elections.

Last week, the EFF’s central command team — the highest decision-making body between national assemblies — met in KwaZulu-Natal as part of a larger effort to tackle the party’s waning influence in the province.

In the previous administration, the EFF had eight members in the KwaZulu-Natal legislature, but the recent elections reduced this to just two, with the party’s vote share dropping from 10% to 2%.

Shivambu, who has been partly blamed for the decline of the party, especially in KwaZulu-Natal, faced scrutiny for his role in the electoral setbacks.

“What leadership wants is that we elect ground-worthy comrades that will take the organisation forward. This means Shivambu’s loyalists can be seen as infiltrators and we are definitely not supposed to elect them in our branches,” one party leader said this week.

“This is also important to rush and do damage control and close any potential gaps that can come with Shivambu’s influence on the branches. Amid these tensions, the EFF leadership is emphasising the importance of electing leaders committed to the party’s principles.”

At the weekend, the central command team finalised plans for the three-day December conference to be held in Nasrec in Johannesburg.

“As part of the leadership’s plan to reduce lazy members, the party has decided to change the rules on who is allowed to attend. Now only branches that performed during the elections will be allowed to participate in the leadership. This will hopefully remove members who are not coming with good intentions,” one leader said.

Babuile said EFF guidelines gave branches until 15 August to recruit qualified members to hold branch assemblies and elect delegates for the conference, as well as nominating candidates for the top six positions. North West is processing and verifying membership for national approval.

The EFF’s national spokesperson, Leigh-Ann Mathys, said the party’s war council — which is responsible for day-to-day activities — has instructed its provincial command team (PCT) to rebuild branches and structures ahead of the December conference and to resolve what the party describes as “an objectively poor” performance before 2026 local government elections .

“The war council gave directives to the PCT to build solid structures, provide support to regions and branches and prepare branches for the upcoming third national people’s assembly,” she said.

“We remain an organisation with a national footprint and influence and we will never retreat or succumb to narrow and tribalistic sentiments, due to negative electoral outcomes.”