Former KwaZulu-Natal EFF chairperson, Vusi Khoza’s political career is set for a resuscitation following his appointment as a provincial deputy convener of Floyd Shivambu’s Mayibuye Consultative Forum.

On Tuesday, Khoza, a former provincial legislature member was announced by Shivambu alongside other leaders. Although Khoza was given the deputy convener position, he is the most senior and experienced person in the provincial top five structure that was announced by Shivambu.

Reacting to the announcement, Khoza said he felt humbled and happy that he was entrusted together with other leaders to lead Mayibuye Consultative Forum in the province, vowing to hit the ground running and listen to the views of all sectors.

“We are just waiting for the national leadership to finish drawing up a programme that will guide us as the provinces as to which sectors we must visit, otherwise we are ready in the province to hit the ground,” said Khoza.

Last month, Khoza was among the first in the province to back Shivambu’s aspirations of forming a new leftist political party, saying he felt that there was a need and a space for a true leftist political party in South Africa.

He said there is a need for a new political party in South Africa ‘that will truly represent people’s interests, not the ones currently claiming to do so, but doing the opposite’.  He was also among the first in the province to sign up as a Mayibuye volunteer team member, heeding Shivambu’s call for members of the public to volunteer their time in organising public consultative forums.

Khoza became the EFF provincial chairperson in 2017 when the party had two seats in the provincial legislature and he helped increase its seats to eight by 2019. In 2022 he lost his chairmanship to his deputy Mongezi Twala. He was subsequently moved to national parliament, however, he was fired by the party for failing to bring enough buses to the party’s 10th anniversary in 2023.

In late 2023 he joined a new political party called Afrika Unite Congress which banked on him to win votes in the province, however, the party did not make it to ballot paper after failing to meet new electoral laws which required at least 100,000 signatures before the party or individual candidate could be allowed to contest elections.

Last month Shivambu, following his expulsion from his MKP Secretary-General position, announced his intention to form a new political movement and stated that he would tour the provinces listening to people on whether they wanted to start a new party or not.

When the MKP sacked him from his position, it cited his unsanctioned visit to Malawi during the Easter holidays, where he met the fugitive prophet Shepherd Bushiri who skipped bail and fled to his native country in 2020.

However, Shivambu said the real reason for his axing was that he was accused of plotting to overthrow Jacob Zuma and take over the MKP.

willem.phungula@inl.co.za

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