‘He’s talking rubbish,’ Malema responds to Shivambu’s comments on EFF

EFF leader Julius Malema has responded to MK party secretary-general Floyd Shivambu’s comments about EFF leaders.

In an interview with the SABC on Wednesday, Shivambu dismissed claims that the MK party was out to destroy the EFF. He, however, said his party could successfully recruit EFF leaders if it wished.

“I’m the one who took the decision to join the MK party, I was not recruited. I went to join the MK party. I approached the MK party to become an ordinary member,” Shivambu told SABC.

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“There is no one who is destroying the EFF. If there was an intention to do so, we could have a programme to recruit members of the EFF to join MK party, which we can successfully do so, by the way, including the national officials of the EFF, we can be able to recruit them. Because a lot of them, when we appraised them before we joined the MK, understood squarely and fairly that it had to be done in that particular way. Including provincial and regional leaders.”

Shivambu said, however, that the focus of his party was to unite ‘progressive forces’, not destroy them

“It can be done, but we’re not in a mission of trying to destroy the EFF. We’re on a mission to make a political and ideological organisational decision and discussion on how we can unite the progressive forces.”

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Responding to the comments, Malema said Shivambu was “talking rubbish”.

Malema: EFF and MK party will not join forces

In March, the MK party and the African Transformation Movement (ATM) agreed to collaborate on all political, community, and parliamentary programmes and activities.

“We jointly call on all progressive political formations and individuals in South Africa to support and associate with the revolutionary and long overdue efforts to unify all the progressive forces. Unity is the most important weapon in the war against colonialism and for the total emancipation and freedom of our people,” said the two parties in a statement.

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Following President Cyril Ramaphosa’s visit to the US, where Minister of Agriculture and DA leader John Steenhuisen told US President Donald Trump that his party and the ANC were working together to keep the MK party and EFF out of power, there were calls for the latter parties to join forces.

However, Malema at the time told his followers it would not happen.

Shivambu left the EFF in August last year, completely blind siding Malema.

The two have not had kind words to say of each other since then.

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