The internet never EFFing forgets

Rub-a-dub-dub, the EFF gets an internet scrub [View this email in your browser]( March 17, 2021 [Mail & Guardian]( [Mail & Guardian]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Instagram]( [YouTube]( Hi there, In September 2016, the Economic Freedom Fighters’ Floyd Shivambu said they were impressed with the experience she had with the public protector’s office, having worked there for five years. The Pan Africanist Congress of Azania said the objections to Busisiwe Mkhwebane were only because of the fact that some people could not view African women as capable of doing more than working in a kitchen.Themba Godi of the African People’s Convention called the Democratic Alliance a “fly in the ointment”. The ANC’s Bongani Bongo said Mkhwebane had proven to be fit and proper for the job, would be able to take up the job immediately, and work without fear or favour. “The DA must give us evidence: if they can’t bring the source, they are the spies,” Bongo said, accusing the official opposition of “grandstanding” and resorting to “petty politicking”. “She has little or no practical experience to justify such an appointment when compared with the experience of the other four candidates. More worrying, we have been advised that the time spent as an ‘immigration officer’ in China is also suspicious, having been informed that this is simply coded language for being on the payroll of SSA [State Security Agency],” the DA’s Glynnis Breytenbach said, to a chorus of booing from the ANC benches. The single-minded support for Mkhwebane was unreasonable, she added. An unprecedented inquiry into the possible removal from office of public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane was approved in the House on Tuesday. The convincing vote of 275 MPs for, 40 against and one abstention obscured some of the hard backroom politicking. [It was predictably fractious]( report Emsie Ferreira and Lizeka Tandwa, but in the end the National Assembly convincingly adopted the report of a senior panel recommending a section 194 inquiry be initiated to consider removing Mkhwebane from office for misconduct and incompetence. Section 194 of the constitution allows for the impeachment of chapter nine institution heads. The public protector, together with the South African Human Rights Commission, the Commission for Gender Equality, the office of the auditor general and the Electoral Commission of South Africa, among others, make up South Africa’s institutions that were established to safeguard democracy. It’s a long process, with 17 steps and no timeframes or deadlines given, and it’ll get uglier as the process evolves. The EFF opposed the motion, with its MP Natasha Ntlangwini describing the process as specifically targeting Mkhwebane and as the “prosecution of a black woman whose only crime was to demand accountability from the poster boy of white monopoly capital”. This was a potshot aimed at President Cyril Ramaphosa, who successfully overturned Mkhwebane’s CR17 campaign funding report. On Tuesday another twist to that played itself out in court, as the [EFF is seeking to unseal the campaign contribution bank statements](. From the podium in the National Assembly, Ntlangwini closed her statement with: “We will see you in court.” Less than 24 hours ago, a certain member of the EFF leadership had EGG on his face and did what any self respecting politician would do: delete tweets. As disinformation researcher [Jean le Roux pointed out on Twitter]( this morning, one Floyd Shivambu appears to have deleted a February 2018 tweet of his that proffered the idea that Mkhwebane was related to “Gupta minister of state security” Bongani Bongo. Specifically, that “Bongo’s mother is Mkhwebane”. Before 2019, the red berets had been at odds with Mkhwebane over a number of issues. The party was initially unconvinced by her suitability for the post but after Mkhwebane [recommended that Pravin Gordhan be investigated]( over an early retirement pension payment agreement for former South African Revenue Services deputy commissioner Ivan Pillay, matters took a decidedly different turn. Only the DA voted against Mkhwebane when she was appointed as public protector in 2016, but it was not long after that EFF leader Julius Malema said the party had made a mistake by supporting her. He resurrected [claims that she was allegedly “a spy”]( and said at a press conference in January 2017 that the party had thought “why deny an African child an opportunity?”, and “let’s give her [the] benefit of a doubt”. "She is a mistake... South Africa regret supporting her. She is a Gupta puppet straight from the Gupta's kitchen... once a spy always a spy. She's proving without fail that we were wrong, please do not call her public protector," Malema [told reporters in January 2017](. He had said Mkhwebane would not do anything in defence of the public purse and the people of South Africa. He complained that Mkhwebane had changed the television channel in her office to the now defunct ANN7, owned by the Gupta family. He also called her an “embarrassment”. The statement has been [scrubbed from its website]( but the EFF really wanted her gone. [Thanks to Politicsweb]( we found this statement from 2018. So what changed? Gordhan makes the heart grow fonder, it would seem. The [Ministry of Truth]( may have been fictional, but its foundations are based in reality. About-turns are to politics what water is to showering. It’s unlikely we’ll ever see the two separated and the EFF is not alone in the way they play the game, or themselves. But they would still do well to remember that revisions of history are not as easy as clicking the Twitter trashcan — the internet never forgets. And the Mail & Guardian will be here to [salvage and document](. Until tomorrow, Kiri Rupiah & Luke Feltham [Subscribe now]( Enjoy The Ampersand? Share it with your friends [Share]( [Share]( [Tweet]( [Tweet]( [Forward]( [Forward]( [Share]( [Share]( Copyright © 2021 Mail & Guardian Media LTD, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in to receive communications from the Mail & Guardian either at our website or by taking out a print subscription. 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