A week ago, the MK Party removed Floyd Shivambu as its secretary-general, citing as the reason his recent clandestine trip to Malawi to attend a church service led by Shepherd Bushiri, a fugitive preacher facing serious allegations. These include cases of rape, sexual exploitation and financial fraud in SA.

The former EFF deputy president, who has always styled himself as a revolutionary, was stripped of this assumed revolutionary credentials when he made the decision to not only associate with an alleged sexual predator, but to also abandon his long-standing ideological posture at the altar of personal interest...