The EFF statement on the recent interviews and media attacks by Fighter Andile Mngxitama
5 February 2015
The Economic Freedom Fighters notes that Fighter Andile Mngxitama has conducted media interviews particularly with the SABC concerning issues he has ample opportunity and space to internally raise as a disciplined member and deployee of the EFF to Parliament. Fighter Mngxitama's latest interview with the SABC follows a string of media leaks of letters he claimed were confidentially written to the Commander in Chief Julius Malema, whilst they were evidently leaked to the media to create an impression that there are internal rifts and divisions in the EFF.
The latest interview by Fighter Mngxitama follows the proven and verified fact that he has asked internal staff members of the EFF to give him information which he said should damage the organisation. He is the one who misled the conflicted Journalist who wrote a misleading story in the City Press, which suggested that the EFF irregularly purchased a Golf GTI, which the City Press later apologised and regretted when presented with correct and genuine information.
The collective leadership of the EFF made several calls in our internal and external communications that members should avoid the temptation to conduct media interviews concerning internal organisational matters, because we have structures and elected leadership in the EFF. The Officials of the EFF specifically held a meeting with Fighter Mngxitama, made him aware that the leadership is concerned by his involvement in potentially divisive practices and conduct, and reminded him that when closing the National People's Assembly, the CiC made a commitment that we will never purge members who declined or accepted nomination for leadership in the National Peoples Assembly.
Despite the leadership's meeting with Fighter Mngxitama and assurance made that all members of the EFF are protected by the Constitution, he continues to conduct himself outside the confines of the organisation. In all his conduct and actions outside the confines of organisational structures, what Fighter Mgxitama does not indicate is that throughout his misconduct, he has been working closely with leaders of a failed political party called Patriotic Alliance (PA), Kenny Kunene and Gayton Mackenzie.
The EFF has it on good authority that throughout his engagement with the EFF and leaked Newspaper letters, Fighter Mngxitama was under the guidance and tutelage of Kenny Kunene and Gayton McKenzie, and the City Press' Journalist-cum-Politician called Charles Cilliers who was candidate Number 1 in the failed attempt of the PA to contest the 2014 General elections.
As a matter of fact, the SABC interview where Fighter Mngxitama attacked the leadership of the EFF was conducted in Kenny Kunene's house. It is unacceptable that in their news report, the SABC did not disclose the newsworthy fact that a deployee of the EFF in Parliament conducted an interview which attacks the leadership in the house of a smaller rival political party in Sandton. It is a matter of fact that the Puppet masters of Fighter Mngxitama are Kenny Kunene and Gayton Mackenzie, the ex-convicts and "former-fraudsters" who tried politics and dismally failed.
The EFF is concerned that as a deployee to the Land and Agrarian Portfolio Committee, Fighter Mngxitama was expected to be in the Public Hearing on Recapitalisation of Land, which happened in parliament at the same time he was doing an interview. What this means is that Fighter Mngxitama did not attend to a very important parliamentary work because he was in Kenny Kunene's house conducting television interviews to attack the elected leadership of the EFF.
The real challenge here is that Fighter Mngxitama shed crocodile's tears in the National People's Assembly and claimed that his ‘revolutionary conscience' tells him that he should not be available for leadership position. He shed the crocodile tears because his ego tells him that he is entitled to senior leadership even when majority of members do not approve of his leadership. Unlike most leaders of the EFF, Fighter Mngxitama does not come from a background of elected leadership, but of self-appointed leadership, and informal often untidy methods of organisational management. The EFF is a revolutionary movement with sound internal organisational systems and principles, not some shapeless association holding meetings in bookshops.
The reality is that Fighter Mngxitama does not know that leadership has to be elected and once leadership is elected, all members in a disciplined revolutionary organisation should rally behind the elected leadership. He will not know because in his own admission, Fighter Mgxitama voted for the first time in his life in the 2014 General Elections, simply because he was a candidate and was voting for himself. This reflects highest levels of egocentric obsession with oneself, which makes a person believe that nothing can be correct or ideologically sound unless they are directly involved at senior level.
Fighter Papiki Babulie, although convicted of murder, there is process of appeal and the EFF will stand with him until the legal process is fully exhausted. The EFF is also not paying him any salary and the North West Provincial legislature has also since discontinued his membership of the legislature. Therefore, fighter Mngxitama is raising false alarms aimed only at painting the leadership of the EFF in bad light.
The EFF will not be derailed by egomaniacs whose revolutionary conscience is derived from sushi tutelage and guidance. We are a bigger movement and formation of the working class and the poor. Those who define themselves outside the EFF will be treated as such, and we once again caution that members should avoid engaging internal matters in the media. We have done everything in our power to tolerate sheer misconduct, and we caution that members should desist from divisive practices and conduct. The EFF is bigger than all its individual members, and will never be distracted by loose cannons.
Statement issued by the Economic Freedom Fighters, February 5 2015
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