POLITRICKING | 'There’s nothing much you can do except to re-organise' - EFF's Marshall Dlamini

Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) secretary general Marshall Dlamini says the organisation’s leadership has no regrets about key decisions it's taken over the past five years in office, including the so-called parachuting of prominent figures such as Advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane, Carl Niehaus and Mzwanele Manyi.

This is despite two of the three having since quit the organisation, in favour of Former President Jacob Zuma’s Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party.

“There might be people who turn out to be what they are today, but the reality is that those decisions were in the interest of the party,” Dlamini said.

The decision to appoint the three left some of the EFF’s members feeling dejected, with some previously claiming their efforts are overlooked in favour of people supposedly liked by party leader Julius Malema.

Dlamini rejected the notion being appointed to Parliament was a reward, insisting members who think that way are prone to putting their personal interests ahead of the organisation.

“When it comes deployment of Parliament or council, there’s no restriction that says you must be a member of up to so many years… anyone we think can add value to the organisation, leadership has the right to present what they think is best,” he said.

“The Constitution allows it,” he adds.

Dlamini joined EWN’s Politricking with Tshidi Madia as he prepared for the fighters’ third national people’s assembly, set to take place in Johannesburg between the 13th and 14th of December.

A smaller margin than those gathered for the 2019 elective conference, 2,500 delegates will nominate and vote on new leadership, as well as assess the state of the organisation and its policy offering.

Dlamini said the party prioritised quality over quantity this time around. 

“We want to take delegates, not just people who come from branches that are not functional. Part of rebuilding [is to say] let’s take delegates from branches that performed and got the 10% margin and above to come to this conference,” he said.

The party has also scaled down from 3,800 delegates the last time around, only extending an invite to one delegate per branch.

“Sometimes the bigger the number it reduces the quality of the conversation, the quality of discussions we want to have,” he adds.

And while questions about the fate of Dr Mbuyiseni Ndlozi persist, Dlamini said it was a non-factor, declaring that the MP and former national spokesperson of the red berets would be a delegate at the conference later this week.

The fighters also meet under the shadow of their former deputy president Floyd Shivambu – who quit the party in August on the back of the EFF’s first electoral decline at the general polls.

Potshots between Shivambu and some in the EFF, along with suggestions that his departure wasn’t a secret to some in the senior leadership of the party have caused severe friction between the two parties, with some, including Dlamini, believing the former deputy president and his MK Party are possibly lobbying for members amongst fighters.

“He is speaking to people, like every other party. There’s nothing much you can do except to re-organise your own organisation, making sure it sticks to its own principles and policies. If you going to be threatened by individuals who want to leave, you will never have an organisation; it’ll collapse,” said Dlamini.

He said they should not be chasing personalities or those blackmailing the organisation with threats of leaving post the 3rd NPA.

Dlamini’s views about the MK Party are very much like Malema’s, who has labelled the party led by Zuma as an arch enemy.

“One thing we not going to do, when people take a decision that their interest is to destroy the EFF, either black or white, that one we going to defend, and that’s what the MK decided to do.”

We are not going to fold our arms, adds Dlamini.