Floyd Shivambu has announced the Afrika Mayibuye Movement as a new political party and himself as its president. Photo: Lunga Mzangwe
In a widely expected move, Floyd Shivambu has announced the Afrika Mayibuye Movement as a new political party and himself as its president.
Shivambu made the announcement on Friday, following a nationwide consultative process with various communities on whether it was necessary to form a political party.
“As we are talking now, as the president of the Afrika Mayibuye Movement, I also want to announce that, due to our foresight and understanding, we have already complied with all the provisions of the Electoral Commission Act of 1996. So the Afrika Mayibuye Movement has registered as a political party,” Shivambu said.
“We have a certificate that acknowledges us as a political party. What that means is that the Afrika Mayibuye Movement is going to be able to contest by-elections. The shortened version of Afrika Mayibuye is not AMM; the shortened version is Mayibuye.”
Shivambu was fired as secretary general of Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe party in June over a controversial visit to Malawi, and soon thereafter announced the launch of the consultative process on a new party. Last month, the MK party said it had terminated his membership on 15 July.
Before joining MK, Shivambu had served for 10 years as deputy president of the Economic Freedom Fighters, a party he founded with its leader Julius Malema.
In a press briefing in July, Shivambu slammed the MK party as a personal fiefdom and claimed he had been fired as secretary general over a fake intelligence report accusing him of trying to overthrow Zuma and of using witchcraft to murder people to take over the organisation.
The flag of the Afrika Mayibuye Movement is remarkably similar to that of the EFF, both bearing the map of Africa, a black fist holding a spear, a star and with the dominant colours being green, red and black.
Responding to questions about this, Shivambu however rejected the assertion.
“You must go and look at the logo of the EFF. You will see that they are different. I conceptualised the logo of the EFF, so I know there is a difference between the logo of the EFF and this one,” he said.