Former Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) Deputy President Floyd Shivambu claims he’s the party’s sole founder, and that current leader Julius Malema and others joined later.
He says he conceptualised the EFF, gave it a name and party colours, and decided where its Johannesburg headquarters would be.
Shivambu, who left the EFF in August 2023 amid a public fallout with Malema, was speaking at a Christmas gathering hosted by his new party, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MKP), at his home village of Ka-Mahonisi, Malamulele, in Limpopo.
His statement signals an attempt to contest the EFF’s legacy and challenge widespread beliefs that Malema is the one who founded the party in 2013, and later grew it into the formidable force it is today.
On December 23, Shivambu hosted a lunch meeting with local elderly women and gave them Christmas presents.
In a video clip obtained by African Times, Shivambu can be heard explaining the current political dynamics in South Africa, the challenges facing the governing African National Congress (ANC), why the EFF was formed, and why he left it for the MKP.
“At Luthuli House, it seems there is no intention to ensure meaningful changes. After five years at Luthuli House, we started an organisation called Economic Freedom Fighters. I started Economic Freedom Fighters alone.
“Any person who came to EFF merely joined, including the one who is leading it now (Julius Malema). We are the ones who started the organisation, gave it a name, character and decided what colours it would have and where its head office would be,” Shivambu said.
“We also chose other people and educated the public about what the organisation stood for. You’d recall that after 10 years as the Deputy President of the Economic Freedom Fighters, I left,” the MKP secretary-general added.
Shivambu served as the Red Berets’ deputy president for 10 years before defecting to former President Jacob Zuma’s MKP in August 2023. He later led an exodus of former senior EFF leaders to the MKP, including former EFF National Chairperson Dali Mpofu.
Shivambu told his audience that the idea of starting the EFF came up while he was still with the ANC.
The MKP secretary general said it had become clear then that the ANC was not interested in using its political power to effect meaningful changes.
Shivambu was the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) spokesperson when Malema was the league’s president between 2008 and 2011. Zuma later appointed Shivambu secretary general.
The national spokesperson of the EFF, Leigh-Anne Mathys, did not respond when she was asked about Shivambu’s claims.
