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ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula. Picture: GALLO IMAGES/SHARON SERETLO
ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula. Picture: GALLO IMAGES/SHARON SERETLO

ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula has expressed an interest in poaching former EFF MP and founding spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi.

“There’s nothing wrong with the ANC or anyone talking to Mbuyiseni. I don’t know if he has left the EFF but [he has left] parliament. If he leaves his party, why not talk to him to join the ANC?” Mbalula said.

Earlier this month, the EFF announced Ndlozi had resigned as an MP.

Mbalula was speaking after the ANC’s national executive committee meeting, where it was decided to reconfigure the party’s KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng leadership.

The Mail & Guardian recently reported the ANC in the Free State was in discussions with Ndlozi. 

“Are we talking to him? I don’t know. It’s possible,” Mbalula said.

Since Floyd Shivambu’s exit from the EFF last year, there has been growing speculation about Ndlozi’s future in the party.  Ndlozi’s absence during the party’s conference last year fuelled the rumours. 

Mbalula said the ANC would be open to engaging with Ndlozi should he choose to leave the EFF. “So why not talk to him? At the end of the day it’s him who can take a decision about his future,” he said.

“It’s him and him only who will speak for himself, but I will not be shocked that the ANC can talk to him ... because he is a good member of society and in the realm of politics, he is a good politician.”

On the dynamics within the EFF, Mbalula said: “When his party ejects someone like Mbuyiseni, it means Julius [Malema, the EFF leader] is very powerful. He is overconfident of himself.”

Mbalula drew a comparison with the ANC’s internal politics, saying: “Mbuyiseni is not just a small boy in politics. It’s like in the ANC, if I dismiss [party spokesperson] Mahlengi [Bhengu-Motsiri], do you think I am mad? I won’t do it. I’ll actually beg her to stay if she was to think of jumping ship. But if you are powerful, you are powerful — and you think someone like Mbuyiseni can just be kicked out.”

Mbalula suggested the ANC was open to the possibility of Ndlozi’s involvement in the party’s political agenda.

“At the end of the day, if you decide to be a politician and want to remain in politics and pursue the agenda of transformation, liberation of our people, we as the ANC are open to that. He can come.”

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