Mngxitama’s role at the Guptas: ‘A Chihuahua’

Following allegations that Black First Land First (BLF) leader Andile Mngxitama asked the controversial Gupta family for funding, EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu has shared his thoughts on the matter.

Leaked emails that were circulated between former Oakbay CEO Nazeem Howa and Gupta brothers Tony and Atul suggest that the BLF leader requested funding from them last year.

Mngxitama was once a founding member of the EFF before being expelled as an MP from the party.

Taking to social media on Thursday, Shivambu reminded South Africans he had warned us about “Mguptama”, saying Mngxitama was “a junior captive of the Guptas” who, like ANC Youth League Collen Maine, was being “handled” by Nazeem Howa.

Shivambu further said Mngxitama was playing his role as a “Chihuahua” (a small lapdog popular with women), referring to how the BLF leader has always defended the controversial family and President Jacob Zuma, who, according to Mngxitama, is supposedly an enemy of “white monopoly capital”.

Shivambu last year called Mngxitama an “untidy conman”.

This after the self-proclaimed Bikoist penned an open letter to EFF leader Julius Malema. In the letter, the BLF leader made a “revolutionary” call to his former party to shun any talks of a coalition with “Helen Zille’s racist party of white monopoly capital”.

Mngxitama called on Malema to choose between the “petty hatred” of  Zuma or “turn the current impasse into a breakthrough for our long-suffering people”. The EFF leader did not heed Mngxitama’s advice, as his party went on to join forces with the DA to remove the ANC.

Responding to the email allegations, Mngxitama said the “attacks”on his movement were part of a well-coordinated strategy to undermine the “revolutionary work of our organisation”.

He blamed the “white-owned” media for trying to defend the “land thieves” by creating “fake news” about his organisation. He said the reports were created in an attempt to divert attention from the “R4.3-billion corruption that happened in Treasury under the former Minister of Finance, Pravin Gordhan”.

Though he did not deny asking for funds from the Guptas, he said his only problem was around the “lies” that the funding was actually granted, further alleging that the DA in fact received funding from the Gupta family.

“The white-owned media has deliberately suppressed news of how Julius Malema has openly begged for money from Johann Rupert, the corrupt land thief. It is not speculation that Malema asked for money from Rupert. There is hard evidence, not fake emails, to support this. Yet the white-owned media is totally silent about this,” he alleged.