‘It is not a purge, but a realignment’: EFF shakes up its Gauteng legislature caucus

EFF supporters, pictured in Johannesburg.

• The Gauteng EFF has sworn in six new members in its provincial legislature caucus. 
• The new MPLs were welcomed on Wednesday as replacements for members who had resigned. 
• Gauteng EFF leader Nkululeko Dunga said the resignations and the swearing-in of new MPLs could not be viewed as purge.  

The EFF in Gauteng says the swearing-in of six members to join its provincial legislature caucus, following a series of resignations, and is not a purge by the party.

On Wednesday, six EFF members were sworn in as members of the Gauteng legislature. The ceremony follows several resignations by EFF MPLs in the past few weeks. 

News24 previously reported that EFF members in Parliament and some provincial legislatures, including Gauteng, had resigned following instructions from the party’s central command team. 

In total, six members resigned from the Gauteng legislature. 

Gauteng EFF chairperson Nkululeko Dunga told News24 that the party had to “realign” its provincial leadership with its legislature deployments. 

The EFF held its provincial conference last year, and some leaders elected at the meeting did not serve as MPLs. Dunga said this had to be corrected. 

READ | Why EFF members are resigning en masse from their positions in Parliament, provincial legislatures

Dunga took exception to questions about whether the resignations of MPLs and the sudden swearing-in of new members could be viewed as a “purge”.  

“It is not a purge, but a realignment of the two centres of power. Some people who served in the legislature were not part of the central command team after the provincial assemblies. Who remains in the legislature is part of a holistic process, and we also consider performance.

“If it were a purge, then the former acting chairperson of the province, Itani Mukwevho, would have also been removed, but he was not,” Dunga said. 

Party leader Julius Malema shared similar sentiments at a political gathering earlier this month. 

“Several MPs and members of provincial legislatures, who occupy those positions based on the political responsibilities they held in the EFF structures, will resign with immediate effect to ensure there is alignment between the leadership of our structures and the leadership of the EFF in governance,” he said. 

Dunga described the EFF’s Gauteng caucus as a leading example and celebration of women’s empowerment, because 70% of its MPL caucus was now made up of women. 

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“This is a clear demonstration of confidence in women as the EFF and a reaffirmation of our commitment enshrined in our manifesto to ensure that women take up space and take over meaningful leadership roles.”

The EFF in Gauteng said it planned to tackle challenges, such as online school registration, to make it “user-friendly and readily available to the people on the ground”.

It also planned to address the housing backlog and the collapse of the healthcare system in the province.

“The EFF has already tabled the motion and plans to resolve issues in the healthcare sector, including the consolidation of patient files into a reliable system made available in all hospitals and clinics,” Dunga said.