Floyd Shivambu and Julius Malema at a press briefing in 2020. The two were regarded as the Siamese political twins of the Left. Picture: Jacques Naude Independent Newspapers
By Sipho Seepe
The outcomes of the 2024 national electoral contest and Floyd Shivambu represent two of the most consequential developments in South Africa’s political history in recent times.
The humbling of the ANC at the poll reconfigured the political geography by ushering in an era of coalition politics and possibly ending one-party dominance. Shivambu’s resignation from the EFF and his decision to join the newly minted party of uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MK Party) has effectively recalibrated the configuration of the parties of the Left. This has not only boosted the MK Party’s political fortunes but also shifted the centre of gravity of the political Left to the space occupied by the MK Party.
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, the erstwhile leader of the Russian Revolution, famously observed: “There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.” Lenin could have been describing the profound political changes that have taken place in South Africa.
For three decades, nothing of significance described South Africa’s political landscape. With the ANC assured of its dominance, the electoral outcomes were monotonously predictable. To say that the outcomes of the May 29 were dramatic would be an understatement.
The voters had punished the ANC for having abandoned its historical mission of liberating blacks in general and Africans in particular. For a few trinkets of silver, the party had sold its soul to white monopoly capital. Its leaders did not want to dismantle the system of exploitation, they say; they wanted some form of easy accommodation in the system.
For the ANC, the years of the pretence of what it stood for ended abruptly. It had a choice of either standing on the side of the poor or defending the interests of white privilege, which has become intrinsically linked with the so-called market forces.
Having arrogantly proclaimed itself a leader of society, the ANC finds itself having to seek endorsement of its decisions from its historical nemesis, the DA. Unwittingly, the ANC has consigned the SACP and Cosatu as mere political footnotes. Having made the choice, the ANC can no longer also claim to be a “disciplined force of the Left”. If anything, ANC leaders have since reduced themselves to nothing more than modern-day senior colonial clerks.
The entry of the MK Party into the political space meant that the EFF could no longer claim to be the only alternative to the ANC. For the past 10 years, the EFF dominated and prided itself as the representative of the Left. Shivambu's resignation comes at a time when the EFF is at its most vulnerable after its less than stellar performance at the ballot box.
At a personal level, Shivambu’s resignation from the EFF, sadly, ends what had constituted true political comradeship between him and the party leader, Julius Malema. Having waged a ferocious struggle against the establishment within and outside the ANC, the two had become inseparable.
They built a formidable party whose brand has a continental reach. Like Siamese political twins, they were joined at the hip. Malema acknowledged as much: “To me, he is not just a comrade but a brother and he will remain a brother, even when he pursues his political career differently. We formed this organisation together … When he sent me a letter yesterday, I felt the same pain when I received the news of the passing of my mother.”
Shivambu’s letter of resignation would, in the fullness of time, stand out as the most revolutionary yardstick in exercising the constitutional rights of associating and dissociating oneself from a political party of choice.
In what is a heartfelt and painful articulation, Shivambu wrote: “I cherish and appreciate the work that we collectively did in the EFF and building a formidable organisation. I believe the aspirations and vision contained in the Organisational Redesign document of the EFF can still be achieved.
“My non-renewal of membership of the EFF is not a vote of no confidence in the organisation, but a revolutionary act that will allow Progressive Forces to unite and work towards the agenda for progressive and revolutionary change.”
Shivambu continued: “I have never in my service to the organisation acted outside its democratic and revolutionary decisions, discipline and practice. I have served with humility and discipline. I will never abandon the cause for economic emancipation and true freedom in our lifetime.
“I will never compromise my commitment to true emancipation and Marxist-Leninist ideological lenses to view and understand society. I will not do or say anything that compromises the integrity of an organisation that we collectively founded.”
With intimation that additional members of the EFF will probably join the MK Party does not augur well for the EFF. Like former president Jacob Zuma, it would be a horrible mistake and a serious political miscalculation to start writing the political obituary of the EFF and Malema.
Indeed, the setback presents an opportunity for the EFF to reinvent themselves. Regarding this, Malema argued. “This is a testing moment. An organisation that has lived beyond 10 years has never been through this testing moment … the EFF will have to pass this test, or it will have to die.”
Malema wasted no time in issuing a line of march for the red berets by recommitting himself to the political cause of the EFF. He averred. “I want to reassure the ground forces of the EFF, loyal, hard-working, disciplined ground forces of the EFF, I am with you and I will never turn my back against this organisation and I will never turn my back against this building named after one of the best leaders our struggle has produced, Winnie Madikizela Mandela House.”
After expressing a sense of profound hurt, Malema was quick to reassure EFF members that he has no intention of abandoning the ship. “I will be buried and my coffin will be draped with the flag of the EFF.
“Even if I remain alone, I will do so because I am loyal to this cause. To resign from it, I will be betraying those people who said: ‘We are prepared to take this risk because we believe in the vision of the EFF and its generational mission’.”
People join organisations that provide them with better value propositions. The political configuration that saw the ANC forming a coalition with the DA provides enormous growth prospects for the MK Party as it offers a viable alternative for the ANC’s traditional voters. In this regard, Shivambu would become the livewire that will attract the disaffected voters of the EFF and ANC.
It is perhaps a historical irony that having been in the forefront of the #ZumaMustFall brigade, Shivambu found a political home in a party that former president Zuma founded. The British politician, Harold Wilson’s famous quote, “a week is a long time in politics”, probably encapsulates neatly the fast-paced nature of South Africa’s political developments. The notion that there is no dull moment in the country’s politics could not be truer.
* Professor Sipho P Seepe is a higher education and strategy consultant.
** The views expressed in this article are the writer’s and do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media.