‘Why follow cowards?’: Malema tells disloyal EFF members to leave like Shivambu [VIDEO]

EFF leader Julius Malema and fellow provincial leaders slammed disloyal members and asked them to leave the party immediately.

Those who stay need to do better, Malema said, while adding that “everything else that looks like the former deputy president shall be dismantled in the EFF and gotten rid of with immediate effect” as he criticised “cowards” and “betrayers” such as Floyd Shivambu.

He said Sinawo Thambo would replace Shivambu in Parliament, while secretary general Marshall Dlamini would be the party’s chief whip in parliament.

The party’s commander-in-chief was addressing an EFF forum at Orlando Community Hall in Soweto on Monday evening.

This comes after EFF co-founder and its deputy president, Floyd Shivambu, resigned from the EFF and joined former president Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party, where some analysts speculate he may have been promised a senior position, if not immediately, then in the future.

National Assembly member Mzwanele Manyi also left the EFF to join the MK party.

‘Away with betrayers’

Malema said anyone who was too ashamed to defend the organisation or traded loyalty for personal gain should leave.

“Leave now. It is very painful to count the soldiers you do not have…. I am the one who was prepared to step aside [at GNU negotiations] to say Floyd Shivambu must be minister of finance. Today I am the one who went around seeking positions [to fill],” said Malema, who was dressed in a khaki military outfit during his impassioned address.

He did not pull punches, telling members they needed to be held to the standard of the party’s constitution and follow it by rote. Provincial and regional structures needed to be better, he said while reading parts of the constitution to the hundreds of supporters and dozens of provincial and regional leaders.

He said those who left the party had never raised issues before abandoning it. In fact, he said that after his wife, Shivambu was the next closest person to him, and what he had done was cowardly.

ALSO READ: Deputy in the GNU and lack of trust: Inside Malema and Shivambu’s ‘fallout’

Malema said he would never have betrayed those who betrayed him.

“Why follow cowards? Why allow cowards to determine your future?” he asked.

Malema said the powers that were held by the deputy president [Shivambu] will go to him now.

During the meeting, President of the EFF Students’ Command, Sihle Lonzi, said he had “renewed his membership” at the party, to cheers from the crowd.

“Away with betrayers!” he shouted, waving his hand to more applause.

‘Defend your fellow soldiers’ or leave

Malema said the EFF was still an intact organisation.

“[The EFF constitution] demands that you do not keep quiet when the organisation is attacked both in public and in private. It is this section of the constitution that constitutes us to stand out… when confronted.”

He said this “testing moment in our movement” saw some exchange principles of the EFF movement for personal gain.

ALSO READ: Shivambu and Manyi’s MK shift aims to challenge Ramaphosa – experts

“We must ask ourselves: Why are those who claim to be our comrades silent? Why are those who are known and popular to be the most vocal on social media suddenly silent?”

He slammed members who blindly followed popular people, such as the owner of Tesla, Elon Musk.

“You get told by Twitter [X] what should happen in the EFF… I’m not saying you must not participate, but when you participate in social media, you must be a soldier with political consciousness,” Malema said, adding that if they were not careful, the EFF would be run by Goolam, eNCA, News24, and “white hostile media”.

He especially criticised channel 405 (Newzroom Afrika), mocking the reporting of their news anchors to jeers from the crowd.

Watch Malema’s address below:

CIC Julius Malema Addresses Gauteng Provincial Ground Forces Forum https://t.co/zfnALZSQQI

— Economic Freedom Fighters (@EFFSouthAfrica) August 19, 2024

Shivambu jumps ship

In the wake of Shivambu and Manyi’s departure, former EFF secretary-general Godrich Gardee warned those who intend to leave the EFF are obliged to inform the organisation if they are being recruited by another party.

Malema said the red berets will not replace its deputy president because it will be holding an elective conference in December.

The departures come after the EFF suffered a massive blow in the national and provincial elections on 29 May.

The EFF lost votes to Zuma’s MK party. The red berets also blamed a campaign by “white capitalists” to “delegitimise” the party ahead of the elections.