When former president Jacob Zuma’s MK Party surprised absolutely no-one last week by announcing that it had fired Floyd Shivambu from the secretary-general’s position, joy and happiness filled many hearts across South Africa’s political landscape. The former EFF deputy chief does not have many admirers in his first political home, the ANC, and after his surprise departure from the EFF last year he did not have many supporters there either.
You could thus hear the whoops of Schadenfreude and jubilation from Limpopo to Nkandla as Shivambu’s humiliating demotion was announced. The cries of “Yena aya Kwini? [“Where did he think he was going?” in Xitsonga]” rang from Luthuli House, the dilapidated ANC headquarters, to the EFF’s Winnie Madikizela-Mandela offices.
It is difficult to feel sympathy for Shivambu. Since his time in the ANC Youth League alongside his former friend, Julius Malema, through to his tenure with Zuma, a man he used to condemn as corrupt, Shivambu’s hallmark has been his arrogance. It is telling that after just a few months as Zuma’s henchman, MK Party members were dancing in the streets on the announcement of his demotion. There are few in South African political circles who have not been nauseated by how full of himself he can be.
Yet it is important for those in the ANC, the EFF, the DA, and even the MK Party to reflect a little bit more as they celebrate Shivambu’s come-uppance. The reason they should do so is because Shivambu’s demotion (and in time, his firing from the party) is not because he is a bad administrator, or that he brought the party into disrepute (the MKP has no reputation to soil given that it is packed with a rogue’s gallery of impeached individuals and those who have faced numerous corruption allegations). Don’t buy the lie that Shivambu was shown the door because he visited a fugitive from South African justice living in Malawi.
No. Shivambu has been ousted because the MK Party is riddled with factions and is unable to cohere. This is a problem that the ANC, the mother of the MK Party, has bequeathed the MK Party. It is a sickness that it has also bequeathed to the EFF. The run-up to the “fighters” conference in December last year — which saw Shivambu and others leave — showed us clearly that all is not well in Julius Malema’s ship of self-proclaimed radicals. The DA has likewise shed leaders and members as it failed to cohere.
Ironically, the person who should worry most about Shivambu’s demotion is Zuma, the very man who pulled the trigger on the poor, humiliated, fellow. A few months ago, Zuma’s daughter Duduzile staged an extraordinary social media attack on Shivambu, saying he was the worst thing to ever happen to the party, and used the F-word against him. She was made to apologise, but the truth was out: whatever road Shivambu was on, it was leading to the gallows. Now he is headed to the backbenches in parliament.
Shivambu is part of a grouping in the MK Party that comes from the EFF. They are in trouble. Jimmy Manyi was unceremoniously booted out as the party’s chief whip in parliament last month. He had only been in the role for six months.
So what we have here is a party that has a faction of people who see themselves as “the founders” of the MK Party — those who were around in December 2023 when Zuma first announced he would vote for the party before he then kicked out those who had initially registered it. Then you have the flood of ANC members who followed Zuma to the party. Then there are the EFF defectors. Finally, there is the dominant faction and the real “owners” of the party — the Zuma family.
If you cross the Zuma family in MK Party you are out. It is a feudal arrangement. Zuma is king and his children are princesses and princes. People like Shivambu think they can build an organisation out of the MK Party. They are deluded. It’s like saying King Misuzulu is a democrat. He is not. He is a traditional leader.
The MK Party cannot cohere, and it will explode soon unless people like Shivambu agree to live under a monarch called Zuma.
The ANC has been splintering since 2007, and it still has factions. It, too, cannot cohere. That means further fragmentation of our political landscape. The EFF had its splits last year, and it can expect others as unhappiness with Malema rears its head again in the future. That means rupture and fragmentation there, too. The IFP has had its own factions and splits and has ended up a far smaller entity. The DA has also seen its lack of coherence give birth to ActionSA, Build One SA, and other smaller entities.
In this sea of fragmentation, whoever manages to consolidate some of these disparate forces will win the battle of 2029.
For opinion and analysis consideration, email Opinions@timeslive.co.za
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