Tension is simmering between the EFF’s Gauteng provincial command team (PCT) and its Joburg regional leadership after the suspension of the latter’s regional secretary Muzi Shakes Tshabalala.
Tshabalala was suspended from the party after he questioned the PCT’s decision to launch the EFF’s ward 27 branch in Diepkloof, Soweto, without his knowledge.
He was replaced by his deputy secretary, Moshe Kgoshi Mphahlele, as acting regional secretary.
Tshabalala’s suspension came to the fore after Mphahlele wrote a letter to the red beret brigade’s regional leaders informing them to disregard all correspondences from the former and refrain from attempts to reinstate him.
In the letter, which Sunday World has seen, Mphahlele stated that Tshabalala was suspended by the PCT and the region did not have the authority to reinstate him.
This was precipitated by allegations that certain recalcitrant leaders sympathetic to Tshabalala wanted to undermine the PCT’s authority and reinstate him.
“Fighter Muzi Tshabalala was relieved from his duties from the secretariat office of Johannesburg by the Gauteng provincial special meeting. It’s only the Gauteng meeting or any meeting above that, which could reinstate fighter Tshabalala.
“Fighter Tshabalala was not relieved from his duties by the regional command team of Johannesburg, therefore, it would be unconstitutional for the region to call a meeting to overturn the decision of the upper structure as we clearly understand what democratic centralism means. No unconstitutional meeting can overturn the decision of the well-organised constitutional meeting.”
When contacted, Tshabalala refused to comment and directed the publication to EFF spokesperson Sinawo Tambo .
“Speak to the EFF spokesperson commissar Tambo,” said Tshabalala as he hung up.
Tambo downplayed the tension between the PCT and regional leadership.
“There is no political storm within the EFF, be it in the Gauteng province or Johannesburg region. All interventions made by the leadership of the EFF within our structures are subject to our internal process and have proven more than logical and fruitful. We have achieved the one million membership target in Gauteng and will now proceed to mobilise towards the monumental 10th anniversary to be held at FNB stadium. The rest is baseless gossip that won’t be worth the paper you intend to write it on,” he said.
Responding to Sunday World questions, EFF Gauteng chairperson Nkululeko Dunga said: “We have no interest nor time to respond to senseless and baseless gossip. The EFF conducts its affairs through internal process with regards to its structures and decisions it takes.”
However, several EFF members who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of victmisation alleged that Tshabalala’s suspension was engineered and countenanced by a coterie aligned to EFF provincial secretary Moshe Koma.
They said Tshabalala’s sin was to question why the party’s procedures were flouted when the branch was launched.
Another leader also alleged that the tension has caused a rift between the PCT and region and stoked factional fires that would destabilise the party.
“Shakes is supported by a certain faction in the province and the region, while the Koma aligned faction from the region and PCT wants him out. The EFF here in Gauteng and the leadership from the national office should intervene as this will divide the party very badly.”
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