EFF leader Julius Malema has thrown down the gauntlet to his deputy Floyd Shivambu to contest him if he is lobbied to do so by party structures ahead of their much-awaited third national elective conference next year
Malema said if the two highest-ranking party leaders were nominated for the top job, he would mop the floor with Shivambu.
The red beret brigade leader said this when he was speaking to Sunday World Engage in a wide-ranging interview this week. The EFF is scheduled to go to its third National People’s Assembly, where it will elect national leaders in December next year.
The lobbying has begun in earnest, with talks that Malema, who has not been contested in the first two national conferences, must be given a run for his money.
Shivambu’s name is being bandied about as having the potential to mount a formidable challenge to the incumbent.
Malema said the EFF was a democratic party where internal contestation was not frowned upon. He said structures backing Shivambu should be free to raise his name, but they must prepare for a defeat as the contest will be a cakewalk for him.
The firebrand former ANCYL president boasted that he had never lost a conference since the start of his political career at nine. He was not going to start losing now and would cook Shivambu’s goose, he said.
His, he said, was a political strategy based on being in touch with branches and humbling himself before the ranks and file of the party.
“The position of the president of the EFF is open for contestation and if they (EFF branches) want to put Floyd Shivambu to contest for the position of president, they are more than welcome to do so,” said Malema.
“I have made my intentions very clear that if I am nominated, I will accept it, and if it means I am going to contest against Floyd Shivambu, I will contest against him, and win.”
Malema said it was evident there was, in fact, internal democracy in the EFF, including for the position he holds.
This, in his view, demonstrated that the party had a succession plan because of the quality of leaders within its ranks.
He said it was a fallacy that he was too powerful to be challenged within the EFF, adding that there were a lot of internal meetings and fights he had lost and that if it were his private company he would not lose.
There were a lot of dissenting voices within the EFF that were allowed to find a footing but within the realm of a centre that is holding under his stewardship, he added. To those suggesting that contesting for a third term is tantamount to gatekeeping power, they must not involve him because his standards are not neoliberal as set by the West.
“If I were to stand for a third term as the president of the EFF, which I will if I am nominated, I am not called the third-term president, but I am called the newly-elected president. And therefore, you are not going to impose your neoliberal practices on the EFF.
“Brother leader [Muammar] Gadaffi died a good leader of the people of Libya irrespective of how many years he led. Commandante Fidel Castro died a leader of the people of Cuba irrespective that he has led those people for many years.
“It cannot be because America and the West describe democracy in a particular way that all of us must follow. That which we will be doing in the EFF (third term) will not be something that is unheard of in the political parties of the left worldwide.”
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