Daily Maverick
Dailymaverick logo

Opinionistas

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed are not that of Daily Maverick.....

Does loyalty to the EFF party leader decide the fate of Dr Ndlozi?

Omry Makgoale
By Omry Makgoale
29 Dec 2024
Facebook
5
Dr Mbuyiseni Ndlozi has been sidelined by the EFF and his position as a Member of Parliament appears to be at risk, highlighting how in our current electoral system, party headquarters rather than voters hold the power.

How long will Dr Mbuyiseni Ndlozi remain a member of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF)? Ndlozi was apparently excluded from participating in the recent EFF national assembly, the highest decision-making conference of the party and one that elects leaders for the next five years.

It seems Ndlozi is being ostracised, or being purged, because he is suspected of being disloyal to the commander-in-chief, Julius Malema, and being apparently loyal to the departed former deputy leader, Floyd Shivambu.


Ndlozi has renewed his EFF membership. As to whether he will continue to be an EFF Member of Parliament (MP), only time will tell.

The formation of the uMkhonto Wesizwe (MK) party by former ANC and South African president Jacob Zuma ruffled feathers in the political scene. Zuma’s MK party won 14.5% of the national vote in the general election in May 2024, becoming the third-largest party in the National Assembly and the official opposition, relegating the EFF to the fourth position with 9.5%.

Read more: Changes afoot for Red Berets as Malema warns against factionalism

EFF votes declined for the first time since it was established more than 10 years ago, in July 2013. The cause of the decline in its votes still has to be established. Some suspect that Shivambu might have a hand in the decline in KZN, where he was deployed by the EFF to mobilise and campaign before the general elections.

Shivambu might have done the opposite and de-campaigned the EFF. His departure as former deputy president of the EFF and a confidante of Malema shows that something fundamentally went wrong between the two leaders. As they say: when two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers. When Malema and Shivambu fight, it is the EFF that suffers – hence the decline in votes in the last general election.

Ndlozi on the out


The EFF will take time to recover from Shivambu’s defection. Ndlozi is thought to have been too close to Shivambu, rather than to Malema.

It is suspected that he was privy to the discussion on Shivambu and advocate Dali Mpofu leaving the EFF and joining the MK party, but did not inform the commander-in-chief Julius Malema about these plans. Ndlozi is now being punished for his lack of loyalty to the commander-in-chief.

Read more: Julius Malema and the EFF — the leader faces one of his toughest weeks

So far no disciplinary hearing has been held, but Ndlozi is apparently being ostracised and purged for not informing Malema of Shivambu’s plans to defect to the MK party. Ndlozi has not violated any EFF policy and has not violated the EFF constitution, except for not informing Malema about Shivambu’s plans to leave.

Ndlozi might be compelled to kneel in front of the commander-in-chief and ask for mercy and forgiveness, promising never to connive against Malema – otherwise, his membership will be terminated or remain on ice. For now, he is on the periphery of EFF membership. He is not allowed to attend conferences and there is no guarantee he will remain an MP for the EFF.

Party loyalty determines MPs


Under parliamentary electoral laws since 1994, loyalty to the party leader determines an MP’s career in Parliament or exclusion. The voters have no say as to who becomes an MP, it is the party headquarters that decides.

In the same way that Mpho Ramakatsa and Lucky Twala were expelled from the EFF and consequently removed from Parliament in 2015, Ndlozi can be expelled from the EFF and lose his position as an MP. His future is at the behest and mercy of Malema.

Read more: As EFF faces ‘genuine threat’, Malema reminds conference delegates what the embattled party stands for

It appears he is being forced to resign and squeezed out as an MP, to follow Shivambu and Mpofu into the MK party.

What does this say about the reality of democracy in South Africa, when MPs are not chosen by voters, but by party bosses? Why are voters not the people who decide in an election whether an MP remains their representative, as in Britain and the United States?

Here we have the great unsolved problem of South Africa’s electoral system, with black voters still not having the same power that white voters had under apartheid.

Leaders for life


How long, too, can the EFF survive with MPs solely dependent on loyalty to the party leader, rather than to the constitution of the party? The EFF appears to be like the Inkatha Freedom Party which had a life president in Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi.

In a similar way, the MK party has a life president in Jacob Zuma. There are no elections. Zuma appoints and dismisses leaders from office as he wishes. All members and leaders of the MK party have to be loyal to a single person, Zuma, otherwise they will be purged.

Other founders of the MK party such as Jabulani Khumalo, Lennox Ntsodo and others have been removed from parliamentary lists and replaced with loyalists such as Mzwanele Manyi, Brian Molefe, Lucky Montana, Des van Rooyen (the former finance minister in Zuma’s administration), Vusi Motha, and the controversial Visvin Reddy.

Read more: The MK party’s year of living dangerously – from a dramatic political debut to internal turmoil

It’s been a long time since the ANC Youth League leaders Malema and Shivambu were expelled from the party by Zuma and Ramaphosa. While Malema and Shivambu, with Ndlozi, formed the EFF, today Malema and Shivambu are now sworn enemies and Ndlozi is out in the cold.

Now, Ndlozi may not be in Parliament under EFF colours any more. MPs are not allowed to have personal moral integrity about how they should best serve the voters who elected them.

In South Africa, to be a member of Parliament depends on loyalty to party headquarters and not the citizens’ vote. There is no power to the people — it resides in party headquarters. DM

Categories:

Tags: