“Even if I would remain alone in the EFF, I will die an EFF member and my coffin will be draped with the flag of the EFF,” said a visibly shaken EFF leader Julius Malema at a media conference in Johannesburg on Thursday morning as he announced the departure of his confidant and longtime comrade-in-arms Floyd Shivambu from the red beret brigade.
Shivambu, who was at the selfsame media conference with Malema at the EFF’s offices in Johannesburg on Thursday at noon, didn’t say much regarding the reasons for his departure from the EFF.
He merely confirmed that he was indeed quitting the EFF and that he would be joining forces with Jacob Zuma’s MK Party.
“I don’t want to use the platform of another party to talk about MK Party, I will talk about MK Party at a platform provided for by MK Party,” said a nonchalant Shivambu.
Malema confessed that Shivambu’s departure from the party took him by surprise.
“I knew all along that there were members in the EFF who were obviously inclined towards MK Party but never thought that Shivambu would be one of them,” he said.
Malema vowed to stay on as a member of the EFF, pointing out that there is no way he would betray his followers, some of whom were in leadership positions in the ANC before throwing their lot in with him and sacrificing their political careers and livelihoods by so doing.
“I will never turn my back on my people,” vowed Malema as he made it known that even now there are no personal grudges between him and Shivambu; that they were still friends and even ate what he called “the last meal” together on Thursday morning before the media conference.
“There was no intention whatsoever to purge Floyd from the party and I don’t know if on his side he intended to contest me for the leadership of the party at the upcoming elective conference in the next few weeks,” said Malema.
“Some of our party members burst out in tears when they learned about the departure of Floyd from the party, this as they didn’t see it coming,” he said.
Malema denied that allegations of bribery levelled against him and Shivambu regarding the VBS bank heist scandal might have led to them quarelling.
He announced that the position of Deputy President in the EFF which has been vacated by Floyd Shivambu won’t be filled immediately but will be up for grabs at the party’s upcoming elective conference.
One official who has announced that he will also be leaving EFF for MK Party is perennial party-hopper Jimmy Manyi, who was initially a senior member of the ANC, before joining ATM and then EFF.
Unconfirmed reports suggest that Dr Mbuyiseni Ndlozi and former Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebana would also be leaving Malema to join forces with MK Party.
Asked by journalists whether he held a personal grudge against Zuma as he has apparently poached senior members from his party, Malema pointed out that he held none whatsoever.
“I have no personal relationship with Zuma, we fought against him during his tenure as president, our focus is now on the ANC,” he said.
But two years ago, Malema and EFF chairperson Dali Mpofu flew to Jacob Zuma’s Nkandla home in a chartered helicopter for the famous ” tea party” where it is believed some strategies and working relationship between the EFF and Zuma were mapped out.
“During the election campaign there are people in the EFF who spoke badly about Zuma but I never did, yet today those very people have crossed over to join Zuma’s party,” revealed Malema.
Regarding Manyi’s resignation from the party, Malema revealed that he never bothered to meet Manyi to explain his resignation as there was no use in this, because Manyi was leaving the party anyway.
Reassuring his supporters that EFF will forever be there as a political party, Malema said the following: “This is the beginning of a new chapter in the life of the EFF, it is not the beginning of the end.”
Malema and Shivambu were president and deputy president of the ANC Youth League respectively until they were expelled from the ruling party for being recalcitrant towards Jacob Zuma in 2012, among the many charges levelled at them at the time.
Derrick Hannekom was the chairperson of the disciplinary hearing that originally found Malema, Shivambu, Ronald Lamola and other Youth League leaders guilty and imposed expulsion as a sentence.
Advocate Dali Mpofu represented Malema and company at those hearings.
President Cyril Ramaphosa was the chairperson of the appeals committee that endorsed the expulsion of Malema and his brigade.
The following is a statement of MK party on two new members from EFF.
STATEMENT OF MZWANELE MANYI AND FLOYD SHIVAMBU JOINING MK PARTY 2 (1)