Africa-Press – South-Africa. Floyd Shivambu says he was axed as the MK Party’s secretary-general on the basis of a questionable “intelligence report” that suggested he was working secretly to take over the party.
Another “intelligence report” was used to block him from being redeployed to parliament after his removal as the party’s secretary-general.
Shivambu on Thursday came out guns blazing, dismissing the alleged report used to axe him as “false and utter lies”. This is despite the party declaring no member should speak about his demotion when the decision was taken two weeks ago.
Shivambu was demoted after the controversy surrounding his trip to visit fugitive “prophet” Shepherd Bushiri in Malawi.
The MK Party’s national leadership said the move was in transgression of their constitution under “offences”, which stipulates: “Undertaking international trips and participating in activities and programmes that are opposed to the agenda of the MK Party or an allied party.”
But Shivambu has come out to denounce those reasons, claiming he was falsely accused by “political scoundrels” who surround party leader Jacob Zuma.
“There has been bizarre and fake intelligence reports which were produced, which was deemed to be a conversation between me and some people in the African continent, where is is alleged that despite raising money to remove president Zuma I’m also accumulating supernatural powers to make people disappear.
“I object [to] this with contempt and say it is rubbish. There is a principle which I uphold, that there’s nothing I do privately that I cannot own up [to] publicly.”
Shivambu said he was also rumoured to conspire to use his demotion to parliament as a way to claw back the party from under Zuma’s nose.
“In a subsequent meeting another fake report was presented, which seems to draft up conversations between me and someone else. I’m reported to be saying I’m going to use parliament now to take over the party and I’ve got money from Stellenbosch, who are going to take over the party through parliament, where we’re going to take power.”
Shivambu insisted these lies led to his letter of expulsion being drafted and placed in the briefcase of Zuma, who he believes is waiting for any opportune moment to show him the door.
However, he said he will not resign from the party and will maintain his membership according to the party’s constitution, which he played a critical role in drafting.
Previously Zuma used the same constitution to justify to his members why he had not left the ANC after his move to start the breakaway party.
Shivambu said he does not care whether his announcement will mean the end of the road for him in the MK Party.
“If the MK Party believes a listening session is reason enough to terminate my membership, then so be it. I left the ANC when it had a 63% majority. I was not expelled; I was suspended and I still left. Why would I be perturbed by being expelled by the MK Party that does not have power?”
Shivambu said he will announce an interim leadership collective next week that will work with him to assess whether to establish a new party.
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