LISTEN | No 'white puppet' acts like Ramaphosa: Ndlozi defends president as he quits EFF

Mbuyiseni Ndlozi, who recently left the EFF, says President Cyril Ramaphosa is no puppet of white supremacy.

Ndlozi spoke to SABC News for the first time after being banned from attending the EFF’s elective conference in December, effectively losing his seat in the party’s central command team. After the conference, Ndlozi resigned from parliament and has now left the party and politics.

“I’m leaving party politics and will contribute to academia. It’s time somebody did for the people what AfriForum is doing for the Afrikaners. That is the civil society space that one is having a conversation and thinking about,” Ndlozi said.

He grew up in left-wing circles where Ramaphosa would be seen as part of the “white capitalist establishment”. He said Ramaphosa becoming a billionaire further reinforced this view.

“Certainly part of that discourse is he will always [be] in the best interests of the white capitalist establishment. His e-mails in [the] Marikana [wildcat strike] did not help because he characterised workers as criminals, justifying the Marikana massacre, [and] the CR17 statements did not help”

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But now Ndlozi sees a shift in Ramaphosa’s actions: “Who would have thought? I wouldn’t have bet anything that one day it would be Ramaphosa who says ‘you keep your America and I will keep my South Africa’ to the most powerful man together with the richest man in the world in defence of nil compensation.”

Last week Ramaphosa told global critics SA would not be bullied.

Ndlozi argued the Expropriation Act alone is not enough to define Ramaphosa’s stance. “There’s the Palestinian matter — Ramaphosa’s government did not just condemn the Gaza bombardment by Israel; it stated Israel is a genocidal state and took them to The Hague. No white puppet acts like that, coupled with the Bela Bill, the NHI and all these policies have disrupted [the] domestic and global white capitalist establishment.”

Recently, Ndlozi faced criticism from former party members and supporters for commending Ramaphosa after years of harsh criticism. He slammed the criticism as unsubstantiated: “Many people accepted there is this new information about Ramaphosa, which forces us not to read people in one dimension.”

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