Dlamini’s EFF rise and closeness to Malema linked to ‘dodgy tenders’ – report

Ahead of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) elective conference in Nasrec on Friday, multiple reports have suggested that MP Marshall Dlamini is expected to replace Godrich Gardee as the party’s secretary-general.

In honour of the new position he is predicted to assume in the EFF, investigative journalism centre amaBhungane has released a summary of their reporting on Dlamini, suggesting that “his involvement in dodgy tenders may go some way to explaining his rise” in the party.

amaBhungane reports that Dlamini is credited with dramatically increasing the EFF’s support in his home province of KwaZulu-Natal, where the party rose from roughly 70,000 votes in 2014 to 300,000 in this year’s elections.

Dlamini, who is from uMzimkhulu in KwaZulu-Natal, is credited with building the party’s support base in that province. The EFF more than quadrupled votes from around 70,000 in 2014 to well over 300,000 in this year’s elections.

However, amaBhungane reports that there may be more to the rise of Dlamini – who is believed to be close to EFF leader Julius Malema.

The article accuses him of being at “the heart of a network of business and patronage ties within the party”.

He has been named in several amaBhungane investigations as someone potentially involved in “tender rigging and manipulation in metros where the EFF had a strong political foothold and could lean on officials involved in procurement processes”.

READ MORE: There will never be factions in the EFF – Mpofu

These include their exposé into the City of Johannesburg’s Afrirent tender, which allegedly resulted in kickbacks into a slush-fund used by Malema, and a more recent story on a corrupt City of Tshwane fuel tender which Dlamini appears to have benefited from alongside Malema.

Attempts to contact Dlamini as well as EFF spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi were unsuccessful at the time of publication, and we will update this article with their response if and when we receive it.

Malema is expected to be re-elected as leader on Friday and Saturday what the EFF calls its national people’s assembly.

In an interview last week, he said there were clear guidelines which steered how members could lobby for those they wanted to see in leading roles.

Numerous slates have been shared on social media, with some members pushing for the party’s outgoing chairperson Dali Mpofu to go head to head with its deputy president Floyd Shivambu.

Ndlozi’s name, as well as that of Gauteng chairperson Mandisa Mashego, have come up as possible replacements for secretary-general Godrich Gardee alongside Dlamini’s.

(Compiled by Daniel Friedman. Background reporting, News24 Wire)

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