By PHAKAMISA MAYABA
A sea of red golfers, military-style caps, and a mix of scowling and jubilant faces emerge as I follow the cameras into the National People’s Assembly at the Nasrec Expo Centre. Dirges and the one-leg-up toyi-toyi thunder at every turn — although this looks like more of a routine than a party genuinely at peace with itself. A PR stunt to convince a dubious audience that indeed the EFF are still a force to be reckoned with, and that commander-in-chief Julius Malema still runs a tight ship.
‘Go tell that to the birds,’ I scribble, after having looked over my shoulder to make sure nobody is watching me – this despite the fact that I’m safely at home in my kasi. At these sorts of events, journalists know the drill. Best not ask about the Breitling watches, the luxury SUVs, or why the CIC criticises white monopoly capital only to move into a neighbourhood known to be particularly, uhm, white, and wears the moniker of Africa’s ‘richest square mile’.
As for VBS – are you harbouring a death wish? No need to be a counter-revolutionary – listen, nod, and write your fluff piece if you don’t want to be called a Stratcom agent.
The leadership comes into view. It’s lean, with lots of backbenchers, the bigwigs (outside of Gardee, Dlamini and Malema) nowhere to be seen. No Shivambu, no Mpofu, no Mkhwebane – the big guns are in hiatus or on permant leave. But something tells me there might be a toy R5 somewhere under the long tables, so don’t ask anything about the elephant that’s not in the room, namely Dr Mbuyiseni Ndlozi.
Depending on who you listen to, Ndlozi has either decided to sit this one out or Malema has instructed him to stay at home. The conference will go on well enough without him. Perhaps his absence allowed him to dodge a bullet or two. The good doctor has become something of a latrine ever since Floyd left the party and the doctor’s significant other happened to ‘like’ that moment on social media. So much muck rained down on him that he didn’t even make the 66-member central command team (CCT), the party’s highest decision-making body between conferences.
Unlike the firebrand Shivambu, perhaps his options are limited, and no one wants to be seen consorting with what Gayton Mckenzie once labelled an ‘ice boy’. Perhaps Ndlozi is daring Malema to sack him so he can go for a no-holds-barred showdown at the CCMA. A chance to prove that he’s no fong-kong Dr by representing himself and taking the party to the cleaners. Perhaps.
As for Juju himself, things aren’t looking too good. The paunchy midsection is gone. The press wonders if he will ever regain his penchant for delivering punchy, Mugabe-esque sound bites. He looks morbid, no longer so cocksure. So much so that he spoke for more than three hours, becoming visibly emotional at some point and admitting to attacks from within. In the main, though, he appears angry at Floyd, at the journalists who ask questions about Floyd, the MKP that swallowed up Floyd, and a South Africa which thinkgs that the EFF is dead now that Floyd is gone.
Or perhaps we have been kind to the Red Brigade. In truth, the demise has started long ago, but became apparent in May when the party was unceremoniously knocked down from the third biggest party to fourth place by an upstart that barely had a proper manifesto. Back then, Malema himself said something to the effect that (MKP were like family to the EFF. Now, that admission has proved that the version of afro-nationalism most popular in many quarters is the one led by the Zulu patriarch Jacob Zuma rather than the young Julius Malema.
In many ways, Malema is the EFF, and with Shivambu and Ndlozi at his side always made for united, youthful optics. Three young, educated, eloquent black men who didn’t keel before Stellenbosch was something that many felt compelled to get behind. It was in essence a party of populism and personalities rather than ideology and economic policy.
So now that some of the big characters are gone, they leave behind what some may describe as duds who lack the revolutionary fervour of their predecessors. Because of this, one could expect the ranks of MKP to balloon, this while Malema is abandoned or – given some of Shivambu’s utterances – suffers a mutiny. I wouldn’t count on much of a merry Christmas in a certain village in Seshego, Limpopo, this year.
Helen Zille, eminence grise of the Democratic Alliance … and the GNU. Image: X (former Twitter).
Meanwhile, somewhere in the Western Cape, a certain woman is grinning big. John Steenhuisen may be the Democratic Alliance (DA) leader, but the person who’s working the strings is no doubt the chairperson of the Federal Council, Helen Zille. Those early communiques from the party in the lead-up to the formation of the GNU were classic Zille – succinct, highly intellectual, and bent on a fair deal and never, ever, kissing butt. Between trying to ensure that her party isn’t marginalised in the GNU, she’s been busy shooting down daggers aimed at her personality.
Last week she reminded City Press readers that she’s an old hand in the world of letters, and anybody brave enough to take broadsides at her should not expect her to take them lying down. Last month it was the turn of its editor-in-chief, Mondli Makhanya, but it was Kay Sexwale who suffered the brunt of her wrath this month. In an open letter, Sexwale accused Zille of sowing ‘division within the ANC’s leadership collective’, undermining President Cyril Ramaphosa’s leadership, and prioritising imperialist narratives amongst a host of other lunges.
From the opening line, it was clear that Zille was baying for blood: ‘Last Sunday City Press again decided to deprive South Africans of news and common sense.’ It would get more brutal for the paper. ‘I have tried very hard,’ continues Zille, ‘to find a more delicate way of putting it, but I believe in plain speaking: Your readership is plummeting because of the bullshit you publish.’
Between questioning Sexwale’s credentials and the paper’s supposed inability to question the veracity of her claims, Zille throws about some strong language which makes for enjoyable Christmas reading. (Luckily for us, it’s not behind a paywall).
Outside of that, these are familiar criticisms on the DA, but given the bromances that have been spawned by the GNU, the commonalities seem to far outweigh the differences. The big parties seem to be faring just fine, but the smaller parties have struggled to stay afloat. Their leaders were familiar faces on the news, but now they are all but forgotten. When last did you hear the name Songezo Zibi? There were big donations, but some haven’t even made it to parliament.
As for the once mighty EFF, the images of the latest conference tell a familiar, if not sadder story, of fewer numbers and a party in an inevitable decline.
FEATURED IMAGE: Commander-in-chief Julius Malema in fully cry at the EFF’s ‘National People’s Assembly’. Image: Facebook.
This is an edited version of an article that first appeared on Phakamisa Mayaba’s website, eParkeni. Used with permission.