UNDETERRED by losing his deputy and his most trusted right-hand man, Julius Malema spent the weekend in KwaZulu-Natal on a fact-finding mission to establish “scientific evidence” from branches on why the EFF lost substantial support in the province, ultimately costing it seats in the provincial and national parliaments.
Malema arrived in the province with a strong contingent of the party’s Central Command Team (CCT) on Friday, minus his long-time lieutenant, Floyd Shivambu, who joined the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) last week.
He began with a meeting with the EFF’s provincial leadership before engaging with branches yesterday.
In eThekwini he held his first regional general assembly with branches at the Durban Exhibition Centre yesterday. This engagement, scheduled to have started at 10am, eventually happened at 1pm, and was held in camera with curious journalists kept at bay with a promise that they might get a chance to interview Malema him late in the evening.
Most gave up and left during the course of the afternoon.
The meeting had initially been scheduled for the Wiggins Community Hall in Mayville.
In the May general elections, the party lost 10% of the KZN votes it gathered in the 2019 elections, leaving it with presently only two seats in the provincial legislature.
Party secretary-general Marshall Dlamini said: “The central command team is of the view that we must come to KZN to hold regional general assemblies where we are going to meet with our branch chairpersons and secretaries to listen to what might have gone wrong because something has gone wrong.”
It was stated that the formation of the Jacob Zuma-led MKP might have cost the EFF and ANC support, but Dlamini said that that lacked concrete evidence.
“We run this organisation by trying to get to the scientific evidence, not through assumption, which might be a fruitless exercise.
“We could have said as the national leadership ‘we know what happened’ but we don’t just take decisions without listening to the branches as they were the ones on the ground,” he said.
Malema is expected to engage with branches in the Umgungundlovu region today.
Accompanying Malema on his KZN visit are Dlamini, deputy general secretary Poppy Mailola, national chairperson Veronica Mente and treasurer-general Omphile Maotwe, and others.
Other popular figures like Mbuyiseni Ndlozi, Fana Mokoena and Hlengiwe Mkhaliphi are spread across the province on the same mission.
“We will confront the challenges and provide solutions and a way forward.
“We lost votes and we need those votes back, we need to continue growing in the province as president (Malema) has said that KZN is our province and we will never give up on this province,” Dlamini said.
He said that by tomorrow the CCT was expected to have a clear picture of their KZN challenges.
Previously, Malema said provinces would have to account for losing votes. Dlamini said the report that would be compiled would determine what action to follow.
“It is a bottom-up accountability where we first listen to the structures before coming up with the way forward,” said Dlamini.
Malema had predicted that some party members would follow former EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu and Mzwanele Manyi to the MKP, but Dlamini said there had been no such defections into Zuma’s fold.
EFF provincial secretary Nkululeko Ngubane said although Shivambu would be missed, his departure would not affect the party’s recovery mission.
“I would be lying to say Floyd won’t be missed because he is one of our founders.”
Ngubane said he was sure that people who were still with the EFF would not follow Shivambu to the MKP.
He said Shivambu’s popularity, status and role in the EFF was exaggerated.
“It gets to people's minds when they are called think-tankers.
“We will continue to produce superior logic because we have better people who are not loud and less known,” said Ngubane.
He said Malema and Dlamini were the think-tankers of the party but were underestimated.
“It is just that they don’t pose as intellectuals but those who have been close to them will confirm that.
“You can go to (ANC secretary general) Fikile Mbalula and ask him about Julius Malema. He would tell you this guy is a thinker, a strategist,” said Ngubane.
He said when Shivambu was a deployee to the province during elections. He had not been very popular among members and supporters.
“His departure might somehow be a blessing in disguise. The expected exodus of members due to Shivambu leaving would never happen because it has been proven over time that in the EFF, people join the organisation, not individuals,” Ngubane said.
He said it was unlikely that Shivambu jumping ship would ruin the relationship between EFF and MKP, who were partners in the Progressive Caucus bloc opposed to the ANC and DA-led Government of National Unity.
“Floyd is an adult. Therefore, you cannot say he was snatched from the EFF.
“He made his choice and political decision to join the MKP and that cannot affect our (the EFF and MKP) unity as progressive forces,” Ngubane said.
Sunday Tribune