EFF leader Julius Malema has laid the ground rules for the party’s leadership conference in December, including that branches which failed to garner a minimum of 10% of votes in their wards in May’s general elections are disqualified from participating.
The elective conference, where Malema will seek re-election as leader for a third time since the party’s inception in 2013, is expected to be a close contest for the position of deputy president and secretary-general, now occupied by Marshall Dlamini.
The abrupt exit of Floyd Shivambu, who has joined Jacob Zuma's MK party, has heightened internal tensions, with Malema saying silence by prominent figures in the party amid public scrutiny amounts to betrayal.
Malema, who last week warned of an imminent exodus of Shivambu loyalists from the party, further warned on Monday against party members seeking to use the conference as an opportunity to infiltrate the EFF.
“Many of them are using the third people’s assembly as a threat. If they do not get elected or aren’t part of the leadership discussions, then they will leave and join the MK party,” he told a party forum in Soweto on Monday.
“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]’,” he said.
Shivambu’s departure could not have come at a worse time for the EFF as it grapples with a poor performance in May’s general elections where its support declined to less than 10%. Zuma’s MK overtook the EFF as the third-largest party by votes and is also now the main opposition party after the formation of the government of national unity (GNU).
The elective conference will choose new leaders for a period of five years, including its top six officials and members of the 40 member central command team, which is the party’s top decision-making body.
The party’s branch and regional people’s assemblies are expected to get under way this month where members will nominate their preferred candidates.
Though candidates are permitted to lobby party members, they are barred from negative campaigning, Malema said.
Malema announced sweeping changes after Shivambu’s exit, including that the former deputy president’s responsibilities would be moved to his office and appointing Dlamini the EFF’s chief whip in parliament.
Shimvambu was replaced by Sinawo Thambo as an MP, while Nazier Paulsen, “who is our commissar and trusted confidant in the Western Cape” takes over from Jimmy Manyi, who also left for MK.
“We are fighting now, we are not playing. You invite us into a fight, we accept it ... where there is a fight you will find us. We will never retreat in defence of this movement,” he said.
Malema denied reports at the weekend that he had held separate talks with president Cyril Ramaphosa after the general elections in which he attempted to negotiate the position of president position for himself. Shivambu was leading the coalition discussions with other parties at the time, but opted not to join the GNU.
“I was never in the negotiations for the GNU. The SG [secretary-general] was there, the TG [treasurer-general Omphile Maotwe] was there ... I was called by the TG when the negotiation collapsed; she asked me to come and apply my skills,” he said.
“I was the first person to say we must join the GNU, and I spoke about it publicly. The only difference I had was that I said I would not join if the DA and Freedom Front Plus are there.”
“There was never any position offered. I am saying this in public and [ANC secretary-general Fikile] Mbalula can contradict this. I have never asked for any position from Ramaphosa,” Malema said.
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