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South Africa: Who’s who in Julius Malema’s inner circle

By Carien du Plessis

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Posted on March 16, 2022 10:50

Dive inside the broad networks of South Africa’s effervescent opposition leader Julius Malema — from his political inner circle, to his business backers, to the family connections.

From the original founding leadership of the nine-year-old Economic Freedom Fighters party, only the leader, Julius Malema, and his deputy, Floyd Shivambu, are still in place.

In a few cases there were fall-outs, but in others the leaders left to pursue other work opportunities, such as practising law (for example, Dali Mpofu who has been involved in a number of cases that touch on politics).

Malema’s words in a speech in 2011, a year before he was expelled from the ANC Youth League, still ring true for him:

“We have seen close friends of us, turning against us, we have seen enemies of this collective becoming close friends as we were soldiering on, because we knew in politics there are no permanent friends and there are no permanent enemies.”

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