Floyd Shivambu vows civil action against Mail & Guardian and Sunday World ‘lies’

In the wake of the Mail & Guardian reporting yesterday that EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu had apparently been caught out in a web of mistruths concerning a burglary at his flat, an unhappy Shivambu vowed that both they and another newspaper, Sunday World, had somehow made the whole thing up.

He claimed that Sunday World never actually quoted him, as claimed, about “any burglary in Fourways and I already wrote to the editor and the lousy reporter”. He then claimed the M&G supposedly knew their report was a lie and he would sue them over it.

The paper very clearly claimed last week to have spoken to Shivambu and went into some detail about what he supposedly told them.

Last weekend, when The Citizen reported on the story in the Sunday World, detailing the alleged claims by Shivambu of his flat being burgled, suspicions around it were already raised.

Analysts on eNCA’s The Fix discussed the story, pointing out it was apparently weirdly similar to a story about Shivambu’s car being stolen when he was still a student leader years ago.

A local police spokesperson told Sunday World they had no record of the case despite Shivambu allegedly claiming to the tabloid that he had reported it to the cops, who were “puzzled by it”.

On Friday, the Mail & Guardian reported that Shivambu has now not only denied that there was any burglary at the flat but that he lives there at all.

According to the newspaper’s story, there may be a good reason for his denial: the townhouse in Fourways appears to have been bought using a R400,000 deposit put down by Floyd’s brother Brian. The source of the money? VBS Bank.

READ MORE: Not everyone is convinced by Floyd Shivambu’s burglary story

The DA’s Phumzile Van Damme took to Twitter on Friday to write: “Floyd has been caught in a big whopper!”

In another tweet, she mocked the EFF for apparently using white monopoly capital as a scapegoat after the inconsistencies in Shivambu’s story emerged.

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