Floyd Shiwambu’s defection shocks EFF and Julius Malema

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has been a major player in South African politics for more than a decade, but the party received a major shake-up after its deputy leader, Floyd Shivambu, defected to former president Jacob Zuma’s new party, uMhkonto weSizwe (MK).

Shiwambu is seen as the EFF’s ideological leader, while party leader Julius Malema, as commander-in-chief, is known by critics as the “screaming commander-in-chief”, making fiery speeches demanding the nationalisation of white-owned land and mines and the “decolonisation” of education.

The two appear to be a winning pair, with the EFF winning support among South Africa’s growing youth base, which has grown frustrated with the slow pace of political and economic reforms since the end of apartheid in 1994.

However, the Economic Freedom Fighters suffered a major setback in the general election in May. Not only did it fail to achieve its goal of rising from the country’s third largest party to the second largest, but it fell to fourth place.

MK proved to be its political nemesis – just as it was to the ruling African National Congress (ANC) – winning the votes of both parties in the first election it contested, taking third place.

“MK has eaten into the ANC’s power and taken votes away from the EFF. This has changed the course of South African politics and caused the ANC to lose its parliamentary majority for the first time since 1994,” William Gumede, an academic at the School of Political Science at the University of the Westlands in Johannesburg, told the BBC.

Mr Shivambhu, sensing the political dynamics, defected to the Indian Parliament last week, leading to the biggest split in the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) since its formation 11 years ago.

For Malema, it was a personal blow as both young men were politically dynamic and together they founded the Economic Freedom Fighters party after the African National Congress (ironically, then led by Zuma) expelled them.

They challenged the authority of a president who upheld traditional values ​​of respect for elders and were driven out on charges of sowing division and damaging the party’s reputation.

Paddy Harper, a reporter for the South African Mail & Guardian, said: “The EFF has absorbed almost the entire youth wing of the ANC and has gradually come to dominate student politics on campuses across South Africa, showing how much appeal the party has among young people.”

He told the BBC: “Malema has the charisma to win support, while Shivambu has the wisdom to guide the ideological direction.”

“With the dissolution of the EFF, the EFF will enter a period of turmoil. This will affect all of South Africa, from campuses to parliament, as the EFF tries to avoid losing more support to Umkhontosh.”

However, political analyst Moletsi Mbeki said the split would actually “strengthen” Malema’s position within the Economic Freedom Fighters party because he would no longer face a “potential threat” to his power.

“The EFF is more like a cult, led by Malema. In such a system, the leader is the leader. Full stop. Anyone who appears to be close to the leader will eventually become a victim,” he told the BBC.

The relationship first became publicly troubled last year when Malema lavished praise on Shivambu, praising him as a thinker and warning him not to plot against him.

“I have no mercy on people who do this to me, so don’t ever do this to me.” Malema said at the dinner.

Malema will stand for re-election as party leader at the EFF conference in October, but Shivambu, 41, appears to have decided it is time to move on.

MK has appointed him national organiser – a downgrade from his position in the EFF, but still a senior position with a heavy responsibility to develop the party.

But Harper said it was unclear how Harper would get along with Zuma, given their previous disputes and the former president’s cult-like status within the party, which has had three secretaries-general in less than a year.

“But there is also a view that the party is still finding its way and that under the core leadership of Zuma, the impeached judge, John Holofce, who is now his deputy, and Shiwambu, the party will stabilize,” Harper said.

He added that another reason that prompted Shiwambu to defect was that although he and Malema were both socialists and African nationalists in the public eye, they were embroiled in a major corruption scandal.

They are accused of accepting around 16m rand ($9m; £7m) in “bribes”, in plain language bribes, after meeting the boss of a now-bankrupt bank in 2017 at his penthouse in an upmarket Johannesburg suburb.

The allegation was made in a recently leaked witness statement The bank’s notorious head, Tshifhiwa Matodzi, pleaded guilty to 33 counts of corruption, theft, fraud, money laundering and extortion, and his alleged role in what investigators called a “bank robbery”.

Both Shiwambu and Malema have denied any wrongdoing, but with a police investigation ongoing and their political opponents likely to continue to apply pressure, the scandal is unlikely to fade away any time soon.

“This is the biggest corruption scandal to ever happen to the Economic Freedom Fighters and if the party had to make a scapegoat out of someone, it would have to be Shivambu, certainly not Malema,” Harper said.

“It therefore makes sense that he would move to Umkhonto We Srei, a much larger party that includes people who have been accused of corruption, including Mr Zuma himself, as it offers him more protection.” The former president has denied any wrongdoing.

MK is also a natural political home for Mr Shivambu because its economic policies are similar to those of the Economic Freedom Fighters – both advocate the confiscation of white-owned land and nationalisation of mines and banks – policies adopted by many African countries after independence but abandoned when the Soviet Union collapsed more than 20 years ago.

“MK and the EFF represent the old nationalist politics of Africa. They are completely out of touch with reality,” Mbeki said.

“South Africa’s state-owned enterprises are huge but due to mismanagement they are failing. For the working class this means loss of jobs,” he added.

Professor Gumede expressed similar views, saying that despite the existence of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) for more than a decade, it has not been able to gain a foothold in the South African trade union movement.

“Older voters, both working class and middle class, see the EFF as chaos and confrontation. They want the parties to work together to solve South Africa’s problems because we have power and water crises, high unemployment and crime rates,” Professor Gumede said.

He added that this was the clear message of the election, but that both the Economic Freedom Fighters and the People’s Spear made a “strategic mistake” by not joining the national unity government formed by President Cyril Ramaphosa after the election.

Harper said that since the election, Umkhontosh had performed poorly in by-elections held in Zuma’s political backyard, KwaZulu-Natal.

“It’s not governing, all it’s doing is opposing the coalition government in the province. That’s not what voters want. What they want is the delivery of basic services,” he said.

“As for the Economic Freedom Fighters, the ANC is currently removing it from its coalition partners in cities like Johannesburg. So it is also being left out in the cold.

“Logically, the EFF and MPs should be strengthening their relationship to offer voters a viable alternative, rather than competing against each other for MPs and voters,” Harper added.