Malema set for unopposed third term as EFF president amid speculation

Julius Malema is this weekend primed to be elected president of the EFF, unopposed for the third time since the formation of the party in 2013.

Malema, the firebrand politician who is known to speak, and occasionally change, his mind, has a clear shot at the top position yet again.

The only difference this time around is that he will be entering the cauldron of the Nasrec Expo Centre without his longtime friend and trusted ally Floyd Shivambu who has since defected to the year-old MK party.

Without Shivambu , the second in command position is now up for grabs even though many believe Malema has earmarked it for the party’s former secretary-general, Godrich Gardee.

But as per the rules and guidelines of EFF conference, whether Gardee will be nominated and even contested will be known only on Saturday.

Some within the EFF are also said to be agitating for the party’s former spokesperson, who is affectionately known as the “People’s Bae”, Mbuyiseni Ndlozi, to contest for the position.

The feeling of some delegates with knowledge is that Gardee is being imposed on them by the powerful leader; hence they are pushing for Ndlozi to contest. Meanwhile, Ndlozi’s absence was glaring at the accreditation centre in Soweto and at the conference venue in Nasrec.

Ndlozi is known to be hands-on, always moving about, giving instructions and ensuring things run smoothly. But this time around, he was nowhere to be seen, and it remains to be seen whether the rumours that he was barred from attending the conference are legit.

Some even suggest that should he be nominated, he would have to record his acceptance through a letter to the conference.

The EFF is expecting at least 2,651 voting delegates at its conference, with 66% of them women.

A notable difference at this conference is the few voting delegates from KwaZulu-Natal — about 75.

The party’s secretary-general, Marshall Dlamini, speaking on the state of readiness on Thursday, said this was because the party had decided it would not make sense for a province that performed badly in the May 29 polls to be given the sacred status of a voting delegate.

The province will bring its more than 250 delegates to the conference but not all of them will be allowed to vote on several issues, including in the leadership race, because of the poor showing.

“The guidelines that were adopted by the central command team are that branches that qualify to be voting delegates are the ones that received electoral support in the 2024 provincial and national elections of 10% and above,” said Dlamini.

“And the reason we took that decision is that part of what we do in the EFF is that we’ve got a system where we want to reorganise ourselves. Even the message that goes to our structures in terms our responsibilities [is that] they have a responsibility to work hard.”

Dlamini said the poor showing of the EFF in KZN affected the party’s overall support nationally.

The party was unhappy about it and would use the conference to find ways to regain lost ground, especially in KZN where the Jacob Zuma-led MK Party is eating the lunch of all the other parties.

“We are not happy with our performance in KZN, and we’ve said it. We went even to KZN as leadership to engage with our members.  They know we are not happy with the status, we lost some votes here in Gauteng,” said Dlamini. “But everywhere else in the country we’ve retained our votes and we are happy with the base because in the 10 years we’ve been a solid base that cannot be shaken easily.”

TimesLIVE