He was fired from the party on the first week of May 2018.
The EFF in Mpumalanga is working on filling the vacant legislature seat left by expelled secretary Alfred Skhosana.
This paper has learnt that last Tuesday afternoon deputy president Floyd Shivambu conducted a meeting nominating Skhosana’s replacement and three fighters emerged in that list.
They are Nkangala councillor Sam Zandamela, eHlanzani councillor Cyril Chuene and deputy provincial chairman Japhta Masemola.
Shivambu drove straight from Johannesburg to attend and preside over the meeting at the White River community hall.
A highly-placed source said the meeting was attended by members of all the province’s regional task teams as well as their provincial chairman Collen Sedibe.
The source said on arrival Shivambu gave the representatives pens and papers to write down the name of the person they believed should replace Skhosana.
Skhosana was fired on the first week of May 2018 as a member of the party.
He had been sent home on suspension on 25 February 2018 following a heated meeting at party headquarters in Braamfontein, for “under-perfomance”.
He was found guilty and he got his “immediate expulsion from membership of the EFF”. This was communicated to Skhosana in a letter leaked to journalists dated 5 May 2018 and signed by national secretary Godrich Gardee.
“There were three names that were apparently given [to Shivambu],” the source said.
“The two names got 12 each and then the other one apparently got 3 or 5. So now that list is in the head office. There’s Cyril, Zandamela and Japhta in it. Floyd took that list to the head office.
“But the problem with Japhta is that he suffered a severe stroke three months ago, so he is not fit for that position. He cannot be able to eloquently articulate the position,” the source told the reporter.
A letter informing him he has been expelled from EFF went viral on social media, reaching journalists.
Expelled Mpumalanga EFF secretary Alfred Skhosana says his expulsion is nothing more than a purge.
He says he will exhaust “all avenues” to fight off his expulsion, including taking the EFF to court.
“They think they have arrived then they think that they are so big that they can purge those who differ with them,” Skhosana told the 013NEWS reporter over the phone.
“You don’t work like that in an organisation. In an organisation you tolerate and support each other in case you need each other,” he said on Monday morning.
“All that I can say is that I’m not worried. I’m not shaken. I was sort of ready for this I must tell you but that doesn’t mean I won’t appeal the decision,” Skhosana said.
He told the reporter that his disciplinary hearing centred around a report he delivered as secretary during a meeting with national leadership on 25 February 2018 at party headquarters in Braamfontein, Gauteng.
Skhosana said the disciplinary hearing described the report as “shoddy”.
“They are just quoting a paragraph from the report and say ‘this is shoddy’. Just a paragraph. You expel me for a paragraph. What else can we say other than saying that is purging? That is purging.
“[Julius] Malema even pointed a finger at me during the meeting on the 25 February and said ‘this one doesn’t have a future here’.
“So I was basically expelled before a disciplinary hearing.
“And as you already know that thirteen councillors in the province have suspended just because they are believed to be supporting me and their suspension is based on no reason, just minor things, ‘this, you, you, that’, just to have them out of the party. So you see the direction to which this thing is going?” Skhosana said.
Provincial spokesman Collen Sedibe’s phone was off on Monday morning.
National secretary Godrich Gardee declined to comment.
The letter informing Skhosana of his expulsion which Gardee signed says the national disciplinary committee “made a finding that your breach of discipline warrants a sanction/sentence of expulsion from the EFF with immediate effect”.
“At its sitting held on the 5th of May 2018, the central command team considered and confirmed the decision of the national disciplinary hearing,” the letter reads.
He said in the EFF the audits are done by an audit team from party headquarters in Braamfontein.
“End of May or early June 2018 we should have the conference,” Sedibe said.
Sedibe wants to be re-elected as the chair of the party in the Mpumalanga province.
Alfred Skhosana, the suspended secretary, is said to be vying for Sedibe’s position but is now out in the cold after his suspension on 28 February 2018.
There is one faction that wants Sam Zandamela from the Nkangala region to be the secretary and another wants eHlanzeni’s Cyril Chuene for the secretary position.
He is out in the cold since his suspension on 25 February 2018.
Suspended Mpumalanga EFF secretary Alfred Skhosana has threatened to take the Economic Freedom Fighters to court if they expel him, according to reports.
He said Julius Malema’s party is not giving him a fair chance to prepare for the disciplinary hearing that is supposed to settle the matter, IOL reports.
Skhosana was suspended on 25 February 2018 during a meeting at party headquarters. He was charged for “underperformance” by party leader Malema
They sent me a bundle of documents on 14 March 2018, two days before the hearing, and those documents were used as exhibits [evidence] against me in the hearing, said Skhosana on Thursday this week.
I did not have time to peruse those documents,” he said.
“I did not even have time to speak to my lawyer and arrange witnesses before the hearing.
“I raised my concern about the time constraint at the hearing and asked for a postponement, but they refused to grant the postponement. If Im expelled from the EFF, I will accept the decision and leave, but will take the EFF to court because the disciplinary hearing processes were against the law,” Skhosana said.
National secretary Godrich Gardee declined to comment.
I dont know what he is talking about. Im not privileged to comment on anything about him and the disciplinary hearing, said Gardee.
Troubled Mpumalanga EFF secretary Alfred Skhosana has hit back at national leader Julius Malema, describing his suspension as an “ugly management of a contestation” ahead of a provincial elective conference.
This paper understands there is a cat-fight between Skhosana and provincial leader Collen Sedibe for power, which Skhosana confirmed.
In an exclusive interview with 013NEWS on Wednesday mid-day this week, Skhosana lambasted Malema, saying all that Malema is doing is just killing the party.
“I might not be conversant with administrative politics because in my 20 years of political experience I’ve never been the secretary but that doesn’t mean I’m the weakest link,” Skhosana told the 013NEWS reporter.
He was criticised the past Sunday by an angry Malema for “underperformance”, labelled a “useless thing” and the reason the EFF is collapsing in Mpumalanga during a meeting at party headquarters in Braamfontein, Guateng.
Malema then suspended him, severely criticising the report he delivered on behalf of the Mpumalanga EFF, before party national secretary Godrich Gardee gave him a letter asking him to explain why he should not be taken out of the Mpumalanga legislature.
“I’m not having a stress myself. If they want to shield Collen Sedibe, pretending I’m the one who is killing the EFF let them do it but when I’ve left they will see who was actually the weakest link in the province. There will be no organisation,” a calm Skhosana said.
He said the Mpumalanga EFF is preparing an elective conference and Malema and Gardee were trying to frustrate him from contesting Sedibe.
“I’m psychologically prepared to part ways. I’ve had enough,” he said.
“When people are fighting and they are left with three months towards the conference, what’s the use of suspending one of them? Obviously you are trying to manage the contestation in the province and you manage it very ugly,” Skhosana said.
He said despite the letter he got from Gardee asking him to give reasons why he should continue as a member of legislature, Malema on Sunday only suspended him “verbally” but won’t challenge it as he can see they want him out of the party by taking sides in the battle between himself and Sedibe and he is himself “psychologically prepared to part ways”.
“This thing of a suspension he (Malema) said it in a meeting. He said, ‘Ah secretary (Gardee) please prepare a letter this man is now suspended,” Skhosana told the reporter.
“It’s their choice let them do what they want to do,” he said.
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