South Africa’s Malema Slams EFF Leaders as Party Purge Looms
(Bloomberg) -- South Africa’s leftist Economic Freedom Fighters, which has been rocked by a loss of electoral support and the resignation of its deputy leader, faces further upheaval as a purge of other top party officials looms.
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Party leader Julius Malema chastised his former deputy Floyd Shivambu — who quit last week — and others he didn’t identify in a speech to EFF members in Soweto on Monday. He disclosed that letters will be sent to all those who belong to a structure constituted by Shivambu, asking them to make a case for why they should retain their positions, given the party’s failure to grow its share of the vote in May elections.
“Everything that looks like the former deputy president shall be dismantled in the EFF and gotten rid of with immediate effect,” said Malema, who is expected to seek reelection as party leader at a conference in December. “We have no reason to beg anyone. If you want to leave, leave now and leave us alone.”
Shivambu left to join the uMkhonto weSizwe Party, which was founded by former President Jacob Zuma and displaced the EFF as the nation’s third-biggest political group in the May 29 election. Support for the EFF, which advocates for the nationalization of mines and banks, slid to 9.5% in the vote from 10.8% in 2019, and it lost six of its parliamentary seats.
In his speech, Malema alluded to allegations that unidentified high-ranking EFF officials had committed crimes.
Shivambu’s brother, Brian, was implicated in an ongoing investigation into the collapse of VBS Mutual Bank in 2018. More than 1.9 billion rand ($107 million) was looted from its coffers by politicians and their friends at the expense of hundreds of mostly rural people who had banked their life savings with the institution.
Tshifhiwa Matodzi, the bank’s former chairman who turned state witness, implicated the EFF in an explosive affidavit, saying that at least 16 million rand was paid to the party through a front company owned by Brian Shivambu. The Shivambus and the party deny wrongdoing.
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