Joburg - The EFF has recomposed its Eastern Cape top five leadership to ensure women are represented.
On Sunday, the party resolved to dissolve the previous leadership and reconstitute a new one.
The party has decided to include two women among the three men elected to the Top 5 of the Eastern Cape Provincial Command Team (PCT).
The announcement was made at the red berets’ third Provincial People’s Assembly (PPA) in East London on Sunday.
Party leader Floyd Shivambu said the decision implemented by its war council was a decisive one. The decision comes just a week after the party held its 3rd People’s Assembly, which elected the now-reconstructed top five leadership.
“Today, the 13th of November 2022, we implemented a decisive War Council resolution on the reconstitution of the EFF Top 5 Officials. We are a movement that’s truly committed to gender parity and always guided by democratic centralism. Aluta continua! No surrender! No retreat,” Shivambu said.
The reconfigured top five now consists of Zilindile Vena as chairperson, Nokuthula Mlokoti as deputy chairperson, Smithembile Madikizela as secretary, Zikhona Njoli as deputy secretary and Thembinkosi Apleni as treasurer.
In a statement, the party said the war council communicated its decision to reconfigure the party’s provincial structure to the extended provincial command team following the party’s recent People’s Assembly.
“Today, the EFF communicated the decision of the war council on the re-composition of the EFF Top Five officials in the Eastern Cape to the extended provincial command teams, attended by all members of the PCT and regional command teams. The communication follows the Eastern Cape’s 3rd People’s Assembly, that elected an all-male top five positions. The war council resolved that the females who contested the positions of provincial deputy chairperson, fighter Nokuthula Mlokoti and deputy chairperson and the provincial deputy secretary respectively, while the fighters who (were) elected remain as members of the PCT,” the party said.
The party said its war council was the custodian of every elective conference and its outcomes, and the decision was made to achieve gender parity within the structures of the organisation.
“In the true spirit of achieving gender parity and representation in all structures of the movement, the war council took a correct and constitutionally permissible decision to include the females in the top five of the Eastern Cape PCT, and they will remain in the these positions until the 4th People’s Assembly in 2026. The PCT and the two male fighters who occupied the positions have fully welcomed and embraced the decision,” the party said.
The Star