Former Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) Chairperson in Limpopo, Tshilidzi Maraga, has resigned from the party to join the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party.
Maraga’s resignation follows the disbandment of the EFF’s Vhembe regional structure.
The party leadership said the decision followed poor performance during the May general elections.
The party obtained nine seats, two more than in the previous elections.
Maraga believes that she wasn’t the preferred choice by the leadership.
“We were not the preferred leadership to run the province because there was a slate that they wanted but it was a bad luck for them because we defeated them during the conference. So it was planned that they associate our removal with the election’s underperformance. The EFF doesn’t follow the constitution. It uses proximity and friendship. The constitution should be the one that runs the party.”
Maraga further alleges that the current EFF provincial leadership has been handpicked.
He says, “The constitution says when a person becomes a chairperson or a member of the provincial command team, the person should at least have three years of being an EFF member, but as I check, the person who has now been appointed as the chairperson, according to the party constitution, he doesn’t qualify. In 2021, we didn’t vote with him during the conference. He was not yet a member by then but now he is there.”
In August, EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu together with Mzwanele Manyi resigned from the party to join MK Party. –Reporting by Ntinyiku Maringa.
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