Poetic Licence

And so we must ask: how many parties must South Africa birth before she can heal?

Floyd Shivambu offered “the truth” behind his axing from the MK Party: a fabricated intelligence report accused him of plotting against Jacob Zuma. But if you listen closely, what he’s really saying is that the space was too small for both their egos. This is not about ideology. It’s about shifting loyalties. Floyd's tenure was a 10 month audition for a starring role in the MK Party drama. And the new party he is “consulting” to establish reeks of either desperation or delusion. Maybe both.

Do we really need yet another liberation-fetishist outfit, stitched together by ego and old grudges? Or are we just watching a game of political Tinder, where everyone’s swiping left on principle and right on power?

Floyd is no stranger to power struggles. He’s survived the storms of the ANC Youth League, helped script the rise of the EFF, and now, found himself briefly in the MK Party’s inner circle. But this latest chapter raises an uncomfortable question: is Shivambu chasing the presidency at all costs? The man who once called himself a Marxist-Leninist now seems to be freelancing for a future where proximity to power matters more than political clarity. 

Shivambu’s fall from grace, or fall from fantasy, depending on how you see it, offers more than tea-spilling gossip. It’s a mirror to a fractured political landscape where relevance is currency and self-preservation masquerades as struggle credentials.

He calls it the truth. Others might call it hubris.But when your truth conveniently aligns with personal ambition, people start asking: is this about the people or about your position?

Is Shivambu chasing a presidency at all costs?

The signs are all there. Floyd isn’t just chasing relevance, he’s chasing a crown. From Julius to Jacob, his trajectory suggests a man who prefers to orbit strongmen until he becomes one. He speaks of “African unity” and “ideological discipline,” while positioning himself as the last serious thinker in rooms full of recycled slogans. But leadership is not claimed by default or inherited through association. and South Africa has little appetite left for messiahs-in-waiting. The hunger now is for delivery, not destiny.

But will he get the numbers?

That’s the real test. Political branding might win headlines, but it doesn’t guarantee votes. The MK Party already feels bloated, crowded by big personalities and fragile egos. The electorate, meanwhile, is tired, not uninformed, just tired. Of false starts. Of messianic politics. Of slogans with no delivery.

And so we must ask: how many parties must South Africa birth before she can heal? How many new colours on the ballot before voters stop seeing black?

Shivambu might yet rise again, South African politics is generous to the fallen. But before we anoint him a martyr or mistake his exile for principle, let’s be clear: the revolution doesn’t owe anyone a position.

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