EFF women vs Ntsiki Mazwai: 'Our mandate is to fight for women and not trend on Twitter'

Several women in the EFF have clapped back at poet Ntsiki Mazwai, after her claims that no woman in the party has as much influence as she does.

This week, Mazwai rubbished claims that she once wanted to “impose” herself as EFF Women’s League president, after a social media user dug up her old tweets about the party.

Mazwai said she was a powerhouse “with or without the EFF”. She also took shots at the EFF and its leader, Julius Malema, saying that the best he could do was call her a “failed poet”, which she found amusing.

She said the EFF was once “the more realistic opposition” and joked that she would have to start her own party.

While Mazwai's jabs at the party amused some, EFF's Natasha Ntlangwini, Naledi Chirwa, Hlengiwe Mkhaliphi and Sixo Gcilishe dragged Mazwai for comments on the party's women.

Ntlangwini said Mazwai was “barking at a moving car”, while Gcilishe referred to her as a “thing”.

While Chirwa did not mention the poet's name, she said the party activism as “EFF women” has never been about individualism or self-gratification.

She said the party's mandate was not necessarily to trend on Twitter.

“We are a unit. Our mandate is clear. Our daily lives entail being of service to assist and fight for the emancipation of women and not necessarily to trend on Twitter. The EFF is big,” said Chirwa.

“We do the dirty work. We look out for those who are isolated and abandoned by society. We unapologetically carry the association of shame given to women. To different kinds of women. Ours is a quest for justice,” she added.

Mkhaliphi said the party's women would not stoop to Mazwai's level of competing about who is a “better” woman.

On social media, users weighed in on Mazwai's rant about women in the EFF.  

Here are some of the reactions.