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There are allegations that Floyd Shivambu’s resignation follows a fallout with the EFF President and Commander-in-Chief, Sello Julius Malema, after Shivambu allegedly received encouragement and financial resources from a businessperson to contest Malema’s position in the upcoming elective congress of the party.
by MPHUTLANE WA BOFELO
During the struggle against racial-capitalism and the apartheid regime, civic, social, labour and political organisations emerged out of organic struggles and deliberative democratic processes. This resulted in organisations centred mainly around varying levels and forms of democratic participation and collective leadership. Even in this period there were certain personalities whose charisma, aura and distinguished contributions made them attain iconic and legendary status. Nevertheless, the democratic political and organisational culture restrained the emergence of a down-right cult of personalities and acted as a bullwork against an authoritarian political culture in which authority, power, influence and control is centred around an individual or a small group of political elites.
The post-1994 era saw the emergence of organisations established by individuals or by a group of individuals, often after a fall-out with organisations that they belonged to. Accordingly, an organisation that emerges out of this setup is often centred around the charisma and aura of specific individuals and around relationships between prominent individuals who spearheaded its establishment and growth. The threat to such an organisation is that it could suffer a crisis or decline in the event of a serious conflict or fallout between the key personalities at its helm.
Very often, when one or two of the individuals who are at the centre of such an organisation resign, they take with them a sizeable number of members and followers. For a relatively new organisation this can have far-reaching effects on organisational stability, and electoral performance. A typical example is the disastrous effect of the fallout between Mbhazima Shilowa and Mosiuoa Lekota on the Congress of the People (COPE). Shilowa’s resignation led to an exodus from COPE, which weakened the party.
It is too early to tell how many members of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) will migrate with its former deputy president, Floyd Shivambu, to the uMkhonto WeSizwe Party (MKP). The difference is that Shivambu’s resignation took place after a decade of the existence of the EFF, while Shilowa and his supporters left COPE too early after the establishment of the party. How the EFF will survive this traumatic moment depends on many variables. The major fact to consider is whether the bulk of the members support it because of a distinguished ideology, philosophy and culture or because of an attachment to specific leaders.
Another factor to consider is the extent to which members and followers of the EFF are satisfied or dissatisfied with the levels of democracy within the party and what their perspective is about the real reasons for Shivambu’s resignation. Moreover, it is important to consider the point of convergence and divergence in the political rhetoric and practice of EFF and MKP. Already, there are differences on the approach of the two organisations to issues such as reproductive rights, capital punishment and their attitude towards the immigrant, refugee and lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer, intersex plus (LGBTQI +) communities.
The big question is whether, for the EFF members, the issues on which there is a point of convergence between the position of the EFF and MKP are more or less important than the issues on which there is a point of divergence, and vice versa. Already, some on social media have questioned how a Marxist-Leninist-Fanonian (Shivambu) can reconcile his leftist orientation with the views of a party that espouses homophobic sentiments and wants to quarantine teenagers who fall pregnant on Robben Island. Also, while many have accused the EFF of an overly centralised, commandist, top-down authoritarian organisational culture, it would seem that the MKP beats the EFF in the centralisation of authority and power around one individual and the people around this individual – Jacob Zuma.
Essentially, the debate on how the resignation of one individual will affect a political party brings to the fore the issue of a disparity between the popular democratic and socialist posture of parties such as the EFF and MKP and the dominance of leader-centrism and the cult of personalities within these parties.
The chasm between the rhetoric of subscribing to a democratic political culture and the reality of bureaucratic centralism within political parties is one of the key reasons behind ruptures that have weakened parties that were part of the liberation movement such as the Azanian People’s Organisation (Azapo), Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) and the African National Congress (ANC).
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It would seem that leader-centricism, bureaucratic centralism and an authoritarian or elitist political culture is likely to be also the source of crises within parties established after 1994. For instance, there are allegations that Shivambu’s resignation follows a fallout with the EFF President and Commander-in-Chief, Sello Julius Malema, after Shivambu allegedly received encouragement and financial resources from a businessperson to contest Malema’s position in the upcoming elective congress of the party.
Another suggestion or allegation making the rounds is that Shivambu resigned from EFF and joined MKP after a proposition and offer from the latter. In a democratic political and organisational culture, leaders should contest political positions based on nominations and requests from constituencies and not because they have volunteered themselves or are asked and bankrolled by businesspeople to do so. This precisely because people become accountable to those who put them in power. The elephant question is whether it is tenable for organisations who operate within a bureaucratic centralist, authoritarian and elitist political and organisational culture to advance the agenda of the democratisation of the polity and the economy. Or should political parties and leaders listen and heed the advice of Teddy Pendergrass: ‘Practice what you preach!’
- Mphutlane wa Bofelo is a political theorist focusing on the interface of governance, politics and development.
