The Economic Freedom Fighters’ (EFF) no-return policy is under scrutiny after a former uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MK Party) activist was elected secretary general of the party’s Nongoma sub-region in northern KwaZulu-Natal.
Sthembiso Zulu returned to the EFF after leaving the party and openly campaigning for the MK Party. This was shortly after the formation of former president Jacob Zuma’s ANC breakaway party, before the 2024 general elections.
His recent election to the sub-regional command team at an elective conference two weeks ago has triggered anger among some party members. They say his appointment violates the EFF’s constitution and reflects deeper organisational problems in the area.
“His election is illegal and flies in the face of party guidelines which say once you resign from the party, you cannot come back,” said Ntuthuko Mayise, a branch member. “We are talking about someone who has been elected to the critical position of secretary.”
Nkazimulo Mncwango, another aggrieved member, said internal jostling and what he described as poor organisational discipline had contributed to the party’s declining support in the region.
“Some people regard positions in the EFF as a gateway out of unemployment and a licence to loot municipalities,” he said. “The recent by-elections, where we failed to get sufficient numbers, have exposed the rot in the party.”
He said some branches in the area were not in good standing and concerns had been raised with national deployee Lens Komane.
The EFF is a key coalition partner in the IFP-governed Nongoma local municipality, where it holds the deputy mayor position.
Under the party’s standing guidelines, a member who resigns from the EFF is barred from rejoining at a later stage — a rule intended to discourage opportunistic defections and maintain internal discipline.
But Zulu rejected claims that he had resigned from the EFF. He said that although he had aligned himself politically with the MK Party, his departure had never been processed through the party’s top structures, meaning he remained eligible to return and contest leadership positions.
“I was a member of the EFF but I had issues with other leaders who were leading the province,” he said. “They made a decision to fire me and cancel my membership. After a year, I was approached by some people in MK to join them. I had no issue with joining because MK and EFF both subscribe to socialist ideas.”
Zulu said he had campaigned for the MK Party but insisted he had never become a member of the party. “If I had been blacklisted in the EFF, my application for new membership wouldn’t have been accepted,” he said.
Speaking to the Mail & Guardian on Tuesday, EFF provincial secretary Vukani Ndlovu declined to respond to the allegations, saying internal party matters should not be ventilated through the media.
“All our members as the EFF are highly disciplined and are learned in terms of how best they should conduct themselves and on how to raise issues,” said Ndlovu.
“No one who calls himself an EFF member would have contacted you to raise grievances unless that person is a chance taker and not our member.”
He added that any internal disputes would be dealt with through party channels rather than in public.
“If there are such issues again I would never attempt to undermine those issues by addressing them through media but internally,” he said. “The EFF I know remains united and coherent and we are focusing on our elections programme as we speak.”
During the past provincial and national elections, the EFF plummeted from 10% of the provincial vote share it had received in the previous elections to 2%, shedding at least 300 000 votes.
A former MK campaigner’s election to the EFF’s Nongoma leadership has triggered internal anger and renewed questions about party discipline in KwaZulu-Natal
