EFF chief Julius Malema. (Photograph by Gallo Pictures/Sharon Seretlo)
Financial Freedom Fighters (EFF) chief Julius Malema has confirmed that former social gathering chairperson Dali Mpofu proposed dissolving the social gathering and merging it with the newly shaped uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) social gathering, led by former president Jacob Zuma.
Malema made the statements throughout an inside podcast with EFF spokesperson Leigh-Ann Mathys on Thursday, hours after information broke that Mpofu had turn into the newest senior EFF member to defect to the MK social gathering.
Within the podcast, Malema stated he was shocked at Mpofu’s suggestion of a merger, which he stated had been met with robust opposition from then EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu. Shivambu himself has jumped ship to MK.
“Floyd was extraordinarily shocked. Dali wasn’t simply proposing it, he had written it down, and clearly thought it by,” Malema stated, including that Shivambu had informed Mpofu that the proposal wouldn’t be thought of.
Mpofu, who was a member of the ANC earlier than becoming a member of the EFF, and now the MK social gathering, has since launched a nine-page assertion dated 7 November, the place he argued that “you do not want anyone’s permission to think about your self as a member or supporter of anybody or all three of those organisations”.
“I’ve earned the suitable to belong to all three by blood and sweat, in addition to the non-public efforts and sacrifices I’ve made for every. No person can ever take that away from me,” he wrote, including that his determination to hitch the MK aligned together with his imaginative and prescient of uniting “progressive forces”.
Mpofu stated he had participated in “underground” conferences in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal with leaders from varied political events over the previous 12 months, and had performed a job fostering alliances amongst left-wing events, however he didn’t touch upon Malema’s assertion that he had proposed dissolving the EFF.
“How can one particular person think about themselves to be a member of the ANC, EFF and MK all on the similar time? Unimaginable, proper? Mistaken. My membership of the ANC expired or lapsed in 2013. I’ve additionally been lately knowledgeable that my membership of the EFF has lapsed,” Mpofu stated in his assertion.
“I’ve not but signed up my membership of MK, so how can I declare to be a member of any of those three organisations? All of them have the suitable to difficulty statements ‘clarifying’ that, in response to their ‘information’, I’m not their member.
“But, I insist I’m a member of all three. I’m a proud member of the ‘AMF of the Nation’ which is a few not-so-imaginary amalgam of the ANC, MK and ANC. The African Mkhonto Fighters. You get my drift?”
Mpofu stated he had facilitated conferences between Zuma and leaders from varied political teams, together with the EFF, United Democratic Motion, the African Transformation Motion and others with the objective of constructing a stronger different to the federal government of nationwide unity.
In Thursday’s podcast, Malema stated whereas he had met Zuma to debate potential collaborations, he rejected Mpofu’s proposal to dissolve the EFF.
He had recommended that Zuma think about endorsing the EFF, if he was focused on a partnership, however the former president declined, arguing that older voters can be reluctant to help the Pink Berets.
“I informed him that it’s not going to occur. I don’t agree with that and there’s no EFF that’s going to shut store,” stated Malema, who has beforehand criticised members he believed weren’t absolutely dedicated to the EFF’s imaginative and prescient.
Addressing Mpofu’s departure, Malema stated: “It’s what it’s,” reiterating that he had anticipated it.
The MK social gathering contested its first normal election on 29 Might 2024, securing 15% of the nationwide vote and positioning itself as South Africa’s third-largest social gathering, a rank beforehand held by the EFF.
Mpofu’s departure from the EFF to MK follows these of different high-profile members this 12 months, together with Shivambu, former authorities spokesperson Mzwanele Manyi and former public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane.
Chatting with the media on Friday on the inauguration of Botswana’s new president Duma Boko, Malema stated the mass exodus of senior leaders was not the tip of his social gathering.
“It might’t disintegrate since you can not destroy that which you haven’t constructed. It’s our little one. It’s our personal child and we’ll resolve what we do with it. The EFF is the longer term and can’t be destabilised by opportunism,” he stated.
He reiterated that he didn’t have a relationship with Zuma past politics.
“We’re political contenders. He’s a pacesetter of a political social gathering, and I’m a pacesetter of a political social gathering. That’s the place our relationship begins and ends. The place we agree on points, we’ll share a standard perspective. The place we disagree, we’ll disagree, respectively so.”
Former MK social gathering nationwide organiser McDonald Mathabe has publicly disputed Mpofu’s declare of helping Zuma in forming MK.
In an interview with discuss radio station 702, Mathabe referred to as Mpofu’s declare “dishonest” and stated Zuma had intentionally excluded the distinguished lawyer as a result of his lively membership within the EFF.
“Mpofu is mendacity. He is aware of very effectively that Zuma didn’t need him concerned,” Mathabe stated, including that he had suggested Zuma towards becoming a member of forces with the EFF.