By Peter Jegwa

The third largest political party in South Africa — the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) — party has removed Floyd Shivambu from his position as party Secretary General as punishment for visiting prophet Shepherd Bushiri’s church in Malawi on Easter weekend this year.

Shivambu, 42, is highly regarded as a top notch political thinker, organizer and strategist having started his political career at a young age while attending university in the early to mid 2000s.

In his third year at the University of the Witwatersrand where studied Political Studies and International Relations, he was elected president of the university’s student representative body and joined the African National Congress (ANC) Youth League.

He remained a card carrying member of the ANC but was dismissed from the party together with the party’s Youth league leader, Julius Malema in 2012.

The following year in 2013, Shivambu and Malema co-founded the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), with Malema becoming the party’s president and Shivambu his deputy.

In August 2024, Shivambu resigned from the EFF and joined MK Party led by ex-South African president Jacob Zuma.

The MK party has never held any elective position, with all party positions handed out by the party president, Zuma.

This week, Zuma sacked Shivambu from his role as MK’s Secretary General for visiting Bushiri’s church in Malawi which he said was “unsanctioned and in violation of the party’s constitution.”

Bushiri and his wife, Mary, lived in South Africa for about a decade, running the Enlightened Christian Gathering (ECG) church, among other business interests.

The pair were, however, arrested in 2020 on multiple charges including fraud and money laundering.

There are also charges of rape specific to Mr Bushiri.

The pair were granted bail pending trial but failed to comply with their bail conditions and fled to their home country, Malawi.

There’s now a protracted court battle in which the Bushiris are fighting their extradition to South Africa and it is while the court battle continues that Shivambu attended prayers at Bushiri’s church.

What irked many political analysts in South Africa is that Shivambu did not just attend prayers, he also exchanged warm words with the fugitive “man of God”.

The MK party addressed a press conference in Johannesburg, South Africa where they announced Zuma’s decision to sack Shivambu.

“… the actions by (Shivambu) were found to be against the spirit and the prescripts of the MK Party Constitution,” the MK party said in a statement.

It added: “Based on the deliberations by the National Officials, it was reaffirmed that the trip was not an officially sanctioned programme of the organisation or the President, which therefore goes against the constitution of the party.

“Due to the serious nature of this matter and its implications for the party, its image, values and principles, The President and the national officials were left with no other option but to act swiftly in addressing this matter.”

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