Former DA Midvaal mayor Bongani Baloyi says he had been considering joining the MK Party for some time and it was a “comforting” conversation with EFF defector Floyd Shivambu that clinched the decision.
Baloyi, who founded his own party, Xiluva, last year, shocked many observers this week when he announced that he will deregister Xiluva to join the Jacob Zuma-led party.
Baloyi said he and others in Xiluva had already been looking at the MK Party “with keen interest”, and it took one meeting with Shivambu to make up their minds.
“By the time I reached out to him, we already had an intention. So what made it easier to fulfil the intention obviously is him,” said Baloyi. “He comforted us, in so far as sharing the plans of the party and what they are focusing on and want to work towards.”
Baloyi said he had always had a cordial relationship with Shivambu and reached out to him immediately after he left the EFF last month to become national organiser at the MK Party.
He said Julius Malema’s former deputy was able to fully articulate the MK Party’s vision for the future and that discussion was crucial to his decision.
“So obviously, once he departed from EFF and moved over to MK, then it made sense for us that there's our touchpoint now, and also the position he had held, [so] let's actually speak to Floyd. So I reached out to him, and he responded very warmly. And we then subsequently met,” said Baloyi.
I'm not too worried about how people characterise what I'm trying to do, because ultimately, it's led by a vision to be able to bring about the full liberation and economic emancipation of black people.
— Former DA Midvaal mayor Bongani Baloyi
He said Magasela Mzobe, another EFF defector to the MK Party, was also at the meeting.
“We spoke in a bit more detail, and in that meeting, obviously, Mzobe was part of that meeting as well. So I left very comforted that this is the right decision, [that] actually we're not wrong in doing so.”
Since his departure from the DA, which he labelled toxic at the time, Baloyi has now donned the T-shirts of three different political parties.
He had a brief stint at Herman Mashaba’s ActionSA, but left to form Xiluva after falling out with Mashaba over his attitude to the ANC.
But Xiluva failed dismally in the elections in May, failing to win any seats in parliament or the provincial legislatures. Baloyi said he was not concerned about people labelling him “a political tourist” for the way he has jumped from party to party.
“I'm not too worried about how people characterise what I'm trying to do, because ultimately, it's led by a vision to be able to bring about the full liberation and economic emancipation of black people,” he said.
“I'm not worried about how people who do nothing look at those who do something, who try, and I'm not going to give up. People can laugh at me, characterise me however way that I keep rising, but I will never give up.”
Baloyi said he was happy with Zuma’s refusal to hold an elective conference in the immediate future.
“I really think for now, it's the best thing that we should focus on stabilising the party, growing the party, and once the party is in a mature stage, then you can go for conference,” he said.
“Because conference, ultimately, we might say it's democratic, but it actually allows infiltration and destabilisation. So we look inward, as opposed to looking outward — and concentrating on changing the lives of our people through substantive delivery by the government that will lead at that stage.”
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