Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema has blamed his former deputy Floyd Shivambu for the party’s poor election showing in KwaZulu-Natal.
Shivambu was deployed to KwaZulu-Natal to help increase support for the red berets, which he has since ditched to join the Jacob Zuma-led MK Party. The EFF only managed to secure just 2.5% of the total votes in the province compared to 45.9% the MK Party received.
MALEMA BLAMES SHIVAMBU FOR EFF’S POOR PERFORMANCE IN KZN
Addressing the provincial general assembly in Benoni, Gauteng on Sunday, Malema said the party’s decline in KwaZulu-Natal was caused by deployees who were focused on person career objectives.
We are even being kind by saying that the person who was deployed for the elections was divorced from reality in KZN. It may even be true, and more worrying, that he was aware of the damage to come in KZN and kept quiet because he had already chosen to betray this movement.
Ahead of the 29 May elections, Shivambu told Newzroom Afrika that the EFF would have a proportionally well-represented growth in all the country’s nine provinces and doesn’t see the party’s support declining based on the votes they received in the 2019 elections.
“I don’t see any province declining in the work that we have recorded thus far, which will grow by less than 100% compared to 2019,” he said.
On whether the MK Party was a threat to the EFF, Shivambu said no, citing that by the time the Zuma-led party was formally introduced in December 2023, the EFF had already put in place the elections task forces in voting districts in KwaZulu-Natal.
“In terms of the ground forces of the EFF, there hasn’t been a shift; we have never lost any member of the EFF to the MK Party. On the contrary, the ruling party is the one that has had its regional and sub-regional leaders flock into the MK Party,” he said.
“The EFF has never been affected by the formation of the MK Party,” Shivambu reiterated.
DO YOU THINK IT’S FAIR FOR JULIUS MALEMA TO SOLELY BLAME FLOYD SHIVAMBU FOR EFF’S PERFORMANCE IN KZN?
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