EFF chairperson in the Eastern Cape Yazini Tetyana has distanced himself from a letter telling Julius Malema he was hurting the party.
The letter, circulated on social media, was addressed to the EFF leader and appears to have been written by Tetyana.
Speaking to the SowetanLIVE on Wednesday, Tetyana denied having written the letter, calling it "fake news".
Dated November 17, the letter alleges the EFF provincial command team convened a meeting in the morning to take stock of the party's performance following the local government elections that took place November 1.
"Part of this assessment included our view of the CIC’s role in eroding the electoral margins of our movement.
"Your excellency, you are hurting the EFF. The EFF brand has been eroded, resulting in our own supporters losing confidence in the movement. The attacks on the judiciary, illegal immigrants’ soundbites, the ill-conceived association with [former] president [Jacob] Zuma and the long-winded abuse of our own commissars, chiefly explains the underlying currents behind our poor showing," the letter said.
The letter proposed a changing of the "guard" and proposes that EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu be the one to address press conferences going forward.
"We need a new slate and change of guard in order to successfully represent the aspirations of all South Africans. We hope that you will respect the sanctity of robust debate and take kindly to our critique of your leadership, your excellency," the letter read.
Commenting on the letter shared on social media, Tetyana said whoever wrote the letter was clearly trying to create divisions between the province and national leaders of the EFF.
"It’s fake news. We’re happy with the leadership of the EFF and there was no evaluation made. We’re busy pushing the work of the EFF, growing the party and working on the ground.
"The people who wrote this looked at how the EFF grew since 2016 and they’re terrorised by the growth of the party.
"That’s the logical conclusion we have right now. It’s malice and the intention is to create a barrier between Eastern Cape leadership and national.
"It’s someone who sees the strength and possibility we have. We’ve grown in the province and from 2019 we received 160 000 votes for EFF and our members in the legislature grew from two to six.
"Our councillors have grown from 73 to 164 following the local government elections. We have representation in all provincial municipalities accept Koukamma and Inxuba Yethemba," he said.
Reflecting on when Malema was last in the province while speaking in Mthatha, Tetyana said Malema had publicly expressed his satisfaction with the growth and progress he had seen in the province.
"They are shaken by that," Tetyana said.
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