Shivambu promises to wipe out poor households' municipal debt if his new party wins - IOL
Former EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu has promised to cancel the municipal debt of poor and child-headed households if his new party wins in the November 4 local government elections.
Shivambu made the lofty pledge at the launch of the Afrika Mayibuye Movement's election manifesto in Thembisa, Ekurhuleni, on Saturday.
He said the debt would be written off through lawful municipal processes, and that pensioners and low-income households would get the biggest rebates the law allowed.
Shivambu said Mayibuye councils would also take charge of every broken school, clinic, police station and road in their area, even where another sphere of government was responsible for it.
"When a clinic is broken, a school is collapsing, a road is impassable, a mine has failed its community or a village has no water, residents do not experience separate spheres of government. They experience one failure of government," Shivambu said in a speech prepared for delivery at the launch.
"No Mayibuye municipality will say that broken facility is not our problem."
Shivambu co-founded the EFF with Julius Malema and served as its deputy president for about a decade before he defected to former president Jacob Zuma's MKP in August 2024.
The MKP fired him as secretary-general in June 2025 over a controversial visit to Malawi, ended his membership in July, and he launched Afrika Mayibuye as a political party in September.
Shivambu said the party chose Thembisa because the township was one of the clearest examples of how local government had failed its people.
He said residents lived with dry taps, water tankers, sewage in the streets and broken streetlights, and that the City of Ekurhuleni had itself admitted bulk sewer upgrades in Thembisa would run until 2028.
Shivambu said Parliament had recorded that during the 2024/25 audit, Ekurhuleni's critical information could not be verified, conditional grants were heavily underspent and national funding was withheld because projects moved too slowly.
"When grant money is not spent, it is not an accounting footnote. It is a road not repaired, a sewer not upgraded, a settlement not serviced and a job not created," he said.
"Your suffering is not natural. Poverty is not a municipal policy.
"Unemployment is not your destiny ... a leaking pipe is not an act of God."
Shivambu said Mayibuye councils would hire their own plumbers, electricians and road crews instead of relying on contractors, and would conduct lifestyle audits of councillors and senior officials.
He also warned his own candidates off using the party for personal gain.
"If you want a title, do not become a councillor. If you want a salary without service, do not become a councillor. If you want tenders for your friends, do not become a councillor," he said.
"If you plan to disappear after election day, do not become a councillor."
Shivambu said the party would contest municipalities across the country, with Ekurhuleni a key target.
"Thembisa does not need another season of sympathy. Thembisa needs a government that works," he said.
"Ekurhuleni can be won. Ekurhuleni must be won.
"Ekurhuleni will be won by disciplined organisation, honest leadership and a programme that speaks to the people."
