Jacob Zuma's Umkhonto weSizwe party has appointed former Economic Freedom Fighters deputy leader Floyd Shivambu as the party's national organiser. (Madeleine Cronje)
Jacob Zuma's Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) party has appointed former Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) deputy leader Floyd Shivambu as the party's national organiser.
Shivambu was one of the founding members of the EFF alongside Julius Malema in 2013 but resigned from the group last week.
MK party secretary-general Sfiso Maseko announced the changes at a press conference in Sandton on Thursday.
“The MK Party is led by the national high command, and the high command [decision-making] “The committee is made up of eight officers,” Maseko said.
The Supreme Command has a further 45 members.
Maseko said Shivambu's new job would include setting up branches and regions across the country, overseeing research and policy development and appointing MK members to parliament and provincial assemblies.
“The high command leadership group is President Jacob Zuma, Deputy President John Hlophe and Secretary-General Sifiso Maseko. The acting secretary-general is Nombas Mkhize and the national organiser is Floyd Shivambu,” Maseko said.
“The national chairman is none other than Mr Nkosinathi Nhleko. The deputy national chairman is Mr Wilson Sebiroane. The financial general is Mr Menzi Ngubane.”
Maseko added that Shivambu, along with being the secretary-general, also serves as the party's representative on the MK party's electoral commission structure.
Shivambu said he joined the party voluntarily with a mission to attract the best talent from society to govern and demonstrate that the party has the capacity to run a complex and “huge organisation”.
“It's not wishful thinking to say we have ideas about what we're going to do, it's about bringing together the best of what's out there,” he said.
He added that if he was removed from his post he would become a “normal” party member.
Shivambu called for unity among “progressive parties” with a common goal of defeating the national unity government formed by the ANC-led Democratic Alliance and its coalition with other parties.
“Small, non-viable political parties in South Africa are not sustainable for the future of black South Africans,” he said.
Shivambu said the decision to merge the “Progressive Caucus” was made with Zuma in October last year.
“The unification attempt is not an opportunistic one based on the EFF's declining electoral support. This is a genuine political debate in which all South Africans who support the revolution should take part.”
“I will never betray the revolution because we are not here to satisfy each other's egos, we are here to build a revolutionary movement that will liberate the black majority, especially African people. And I will make no apologies for that.”
“There is no dictatorship, there are only political debates. Every time I interact with President Zuma, he is patient in the political and ideological debates and convinces me of the way forward,” he said.
The MK restructuring comes several months after party members called for an elected party conference, or at least the establishment of a stable organisational structure.
Maseko said the party had decided not to hold an elected conference until the structures were in place.
The press conference came after the party dismissed 18 members and removed them from the parliamentary roll.
Ten of the 18 who were removed have filed lawsuits in court seeking to have their positions reinstated in parliament and to block parliament from swearing in their replacements.
They also asked the court to declare that they would remain party members and MPs of the MK Party until they were legally stripped of their membership.
The party said 18 people had been removed after it was discovered they had been listed incorrectly on its list of parliamentary candidates for the general election in May.