POLL | How will Floyd Shivambu's resignation affect the EFF?

Floyd Shivambu made some changes to his social media profile to show a change in his political home minutes after resigning as the EFF’s deputy president. 

Shivambu announced his exit from the red berets on Thursday. He is now a member of the MK Party. 

“I’ve never in my service of the organisation acted against the organisation’s principles. I’ve never compromised my commitment to true emancipation. The organisation should not mischaracterise my revolutionary decision to not renew my membership. I request that I be relieved of all my deployment in the spheres of the organisation. Political decisions should never be received as betrayal,” he said. 

EFF leader Julius Malema accepted Shivambu’s resignation. 

“I stand before you to accept the decision of the deputy president of the EFF, who has voluntarily resigned from his position and did not renew his membership. When he sent me a letter [Wednesday], I felt the same pain when I received the news of the passing away of my mother because Floyd, to me, is not just a comrade. He is a brother, and he will remain a brother even when he pursues his political career differently,” Malema said.

Shivambu publicly embraced his new party by posting pictures of its emblem on his social media profile.

The resignation comes just months before the EFF holds its conference in December.

Shivambu had been deployed to lead the party in KwaZulu-Natal during this year's elections.

Despite investing resources and launching it manifesto at Durban's Moses Mabhida Stadium, the party had a poor showing on May 29, getting just 2.56% of the vote, a significant drop from 9.96% in 2019 in the province. 

Jailed former VBS Mutual Bank chair Tshifhiwa Matodzi said in his testimony that the EFF was paid a R5m lump sum and R1m in monthly “donations” by the bank. He claimed he had worked closely with Shivambu to funnel the funds through a company owned by Shivambu's brother Brian Shivambu.

“Floyd indicated they opened an account at VBS Mutual Bank in the name of a company called Sgameka. A R5m transfer as promised was made on my instruction from Malibongwe [Petroleum] to Sgameka on June 8 2017. Subsequent payments were paid from Vele [Investments] or any of Vele’s subsidiaries. Myself, Julius and Floyd understood that concept of donation to mean gratification, hence Floyd and Shivambu did not provide the EFF’s own banking details for the ‘donations’,” the affidavit read.

After the bank was placed under curatorship by the government in 2018, Matodzi said he and Floyd drafted a contract between VBS Mutual Bank shareholders and Sgameka to be able to account for the donations made to the EFF.

“I met Floyd and his younger brother Brian several times at Floyd’s residence in Bryanston. At one of the meetings myself, Floyd and Brian agreed to regularise the R5m and R1m monthly donations. It was agreed among us that we draft a contract between Vele and Sgameka for consulting work in petroleum and storage facilities. The signatories were myself representing Vele and Brian, who was representing Sgameka.”

Over the years as the VBS Mutual Bank saga has played out, Malema and Shivambu have maintained their innocence.