POLITICAL NEWS - The EFF in KwaZulu-Natal has been struck by the winds of change, with the party’s student wing booted out of power in one of the province’s key educational institutions and 33 of the party’s public representatives from KZN expelled from the party.
The EFF Student Command, which went into the recent University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) student representative council (SRC) elections at the institution’s Durban Central campus facing claims that it was inciting violence, lost to its fierce rival — the ANC-aligned South African Student Congress (Sasco).
The Student Command’s defeat represents a setback for the EFF’s student wing, which in recent years has been a dominant force within the province’s institutions of higher learning.
ANC provincial secretary Bheki Mtolo described Sasco’s victory as a positive development in KZN at large.
“The dominance of Sasco as highlighted by the election results will rekindle a revolutionary consciousness of students in UKZN and in society at large.
“Indeed, as the ANC, we expect the SRC from UKZN and students in various institutions of higher learning to be unapologetically at the forefront of the struggle for the creation of wealth in the townships and rural areas of this province.
Students activism must not only be confined to institutions of higher learning, but must extend to communities where students come from. Sasco leadership and youth leaders have a responsibility to ensure that the ANC remains a vehicle for the transformation of KwaZulu-Natal over the next 30 years …” he said.
The defeat of the EFF Student Command at UKZN Central happened as the EFF national leadership resolved to expel 33 public representative who belong to the party’s KZN structures.
The 33 EFF public representatives — who served as councillors, MPLs and MPs — were part of the 62 from across the country which the EFF leadership accused of failing to organise buses to ferry supporters to the organisation’s 10th anniversary rally held in Pretoria about three months ago.
According to the list released by the EFF national leadership, the 33 KZN public representatives include the party’s former KZN provincial chairperson Vusi Khoza, who was one of the EFF’s MPs before his expulsion.
The EFF said the 62 public representatives who failed to procure buses as requested by the party’s national leadership appeared before internal EFF disciplinary committees before they were eventually dismissed.
All of those who failed to adhere to this directive were prescribed with additional charges, inclusive of the charge for failing to procure transport.
“The EFF national disciplinary committee considered all of the matters before them and reached verdicts of expulsion of all 62 members who appeared before it,” the EFF leadership said in a statement.
Article: Caxton publication, The Citizen
‘We bring you the latest Garden Route, Hessequa, Karoo news’
