John Matisonn: MK lands a major ‘influencer’, fishing where fish are

Jacob Zuma's Mkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) is gaining traction, bolstered by high-profile recruits like social media podcaster Darren Campher, now heading its parliamentary research team. Campher's focus on nationalizing the reserve bank and land expropriation reflects MKP's radical economic agenda. Meanwhile, the EFF faces internal turmoil, with key defections and leadership tensions. As traditional media wanes, social platforms amplify these shifts, reshaping South Africa's political landscape amidst deepening factionalism..Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here..The seventh BizNews Conference, BNC#7, is to be held in Hermanus from March 11 to 13, 2025. The 2025 BizNews Conference is designed to provide an excellent opportunity for members of the BizNews community to interact directly with the keynote speakers, old (and new) friends from previous BNC events – and to interact with members of the BizNews team. Register for BNC#7 here. .By John Matisonn ___STEADY_PAYWALL___.Former President Jacob Zuma's Mkhonto weSizwe Party appears to be maintaining momentum recruiting new members including a popular social media podcaster, Darren Campher, who will take charge of its parliamentary research department..Campher, 33, who won the social commentary award at the DSTV content creator awards last month, will lead a team providing research to Dr John Hlophe, Brian Molefe, Lucky Montana and others on how to advance their policies in parliament..He told Sizwe Mphofu-Welsh on his SMWX platform that his primary issues are the nationalization of the reserve bank and removing its independent power to set interest rates, appropriating land without compensation, and reversing the constitutional sovereignty of the courts over parliament..Campher is a significant catch in a media world where podcasts by members of local communities have become more important as the impact of legacy media declines. Platforms like Campher's on TikTok, Instagram and elsewhere, Sizwe Mphofu-Walsh's SMWX, as well as Biznews, are rapidly growing in reach as more traditional media fade and several newspapers cease to print altogether..MKP recently announced that 400 IFP members had defected to join the party, while the EFF showed signs of continuing infighting and disarray in the face of their loss of former deputy president Floyd Shivambu and former chairperson Dali Mphofu, SC, to Zuma's party..This week Nolubabalo Mcinga, the sixth wife of AbaThembu King Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo, monarch of Mandela's Thembu people, resigned from the EFF and her seat in the National Council of Provinces, without saying what she will do next..Read more: The painful decline of the EFF: Kenneth Mokgatlhe wa Kgwadi."I have resigned from the party and parliament," she said. "That's all I will confirm now. I'm not well." .In the EFF, social media's role was also front and centre, as the party claimed a social media post expressing "deep disappointment and disillusionment with the recent actions of our president" was fake.."The manner in which some of our leaders have been treated is not only unacceptable but also detrimental to the well-being and unity of our movement," said the apparently fake post..The EFF will elect office bearers at its's forthcoming national people's assembly on December 13 to 15 at Nasrec in Johannesburg, and weekend reports claimed Malema may be putting his thumb on the scale to exclude Dr Mbuyiseni Ndlozi, who has been lobbied to contest for the top job held by Julius Malema or the deputy presidency. .While former secretary Godrich Gardee is favoured by the party hierarchy, Ndlozi was a favourite of younger members. Ndlozi has given no indication that he is interested, but members have noted his absence from EFF events in recent weeks..City Press reported that Ndlozi may have been suspended from the party as he had not attended key EFF meetings in the past two weeks, and that he was removed from the parliamentary portfolio committee on trade, industry and competition last month..The row has become personal, in part because he was a close friend of Shivambu, and did not react to calls for him to denounce his friend when he left the EFF. Attacks followed on Ndlozi's partner, Mmabatho Montsho, a well-known activist who had liked Shivambu's post on Instagram. .In his address to the Gauteng provincial ground forces forum at the Orlando Community Hall in Soweto after Shivambu left, Malema called for leaders who were waiting for the third national assembly to leave at once..City Press reported that when a social media user posted Gardee as the incoming deputy president, Malema retweeted that post, which many believed was an endorsement..But is a bigger grudge playing out in the background. Malema has fowled Zuma's nest repeatedly, first inside the ANC when he turned on him as ANC youth league leader and got expelled, then in parliament repeatedly humiliating him with the chant "pay back the money.".Recently he said, "if Zuma wants a war, that's exactly what he will get.".Responding to Mpofu's departure, Malema posted on X, formerly Twitter: "Only two more of your favourites remain and the list will be finalised.".The factions in the ANC, EFF and IFP that are sympathetic to their agenda of "radical economic transformation" are steadily galvanizing around Zuma, leaving the EFF weakened and the ANC and EFF both uncertain as to which of their members remains a "sleeper", ready to defect when the time is right..Read also:.Zuma's MK Party ends parliament boycott amid election disputeJabulani Khumalo: A "lying" Mpofu, a "bitter" Zuma – and a "joke" GNUEFF behind fresh attempt by politicians to control SA Reserve Bank – Patrick McLaughlin

John Matisonn: MK lands a major ‘influencer’, fishing where fish are

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