Pastor Zondo to form part of Shivambu’s team; Ndhlela rejects ‘apology’

The former secretary-general of the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party, Floyd Shivambu, has defended his relationship with controversial pastor Bishop Stephen Bafana Zondo.

Zondo is on trial in the High Court in Pretoria for the alleged rapes of several congregants in his church.

Briefing the media on Friday, Shivambu said Zondo will serve as a chaplain in the Mayibuye Africa party consultation process. He said Zondo will be involved in guiding the organisation’s moral direction.

“Pastor Zondo is not convicted of any crime,” he said.

Why involve Zondo?

Shivambu said he did not make a “mistake” by including Zondo in the consultation process for the formation of his new political party.

“He has played multiple leadership roles in his community and even in the other organisations that we came from. He was coordinating a very large interreligious movement,” he said.

Shivambu said the inclusion of religious leaders in the consultation process is very important because the majority of South Africans are religious.

“If the whole political organisation that seeks to respond to the aspirations and interests of the people does not have church leaders, then it’s a wrong organisation,” he said.

Shivambu said Zondo had been approached by other church leaders who asked him to “pay attention” to the Mayibuye Africa consultations.

Shivambu’s involvement with Zondo comes weeks after he was removed from his position as secretary-general of the MK party for visiting controversial Malawian pastor Shepherd Bushiri.

Bushiri also faces sexual assault and fraud allegations.

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Is it a retraction or an apology?

Meanwhile, Shivambu also retracted his statements about MK party spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndhlela being a drug addict. He speaking during an interview on eNCA this week.

“When I spoke the other time, I was not yet national convenor of the Mayibuye process. Now I have the benefit of the leadership collective in terms of how we should handle certain things.

“We conditionally retract statements of drug use and alcohol abuse of Nhlamulo Ndhlela. But take this opportunity to encourage the people of South Africa to stay away from drugs and to stay away from alcohol,” he said.

Despite this, Ndhlela told The Citizen that he does not regard this as an apology and that he is continuing with his lawsuit against Shivambu.

“He must go read the conditions in the lawyer’s letter,” he said.

Is Floyd a member of the MK party?

At the same time Shivambu refused to confirm if he is still a member of the MK party or not.

However, he said everything he was doing with the Mayibuye Africa consultations was transparent and with the knowledge of MK party founder and president Jacob Zuma.  

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