Mandisa Mashego‘ departure from The EFF is reminiscent to that of Lindiwe Mazibuko from the DA, this goes to show that politics remains a hostile space for fiery women-politicians.
On why she left EFF leadership positions, she said:
“I handed in my resignation later in early February. My exit from the red berets was due to ideological reasons as well as her health. It has been a few years coming. I have felt that some of the struggles I want to pursue are outside of the confines of an organisation. I want to fight for the death penalty but I cannot do that as part of the EFF as it goes against their principles.”
“My health has become a massive problem. I had a massive life-saving operation in 2018. It is a condition that affects your ability even physically. I felt like self-preservation would be more important and ideological reasons.”
Mashego dismissed allegations that she is joining the People’s Dialogue fronted by Herman Mashaba.
“I do have a lot of private discussion with Herman. I always have, especially during difficult times of his tenure as the Executive Mayor, I’ve learned to respect him even though ideologically we’re still far apart but we have not yet had a discussion about me joining him. From what I know he has not established a political party, he has some kind of formation that he’s engaging citizens about what they want to see in next year’s elections and beyond and what kind of leadership they want to see in government. I’m aware of that and I’m not part of that.”