EFF Deputy Head Shivambu to Contest Parliament's Ethics Committee Ruling in Court

A decision to dock the salary of Economic Freedom Fighters Deputy President Floyd Shivambu by Parliament’s Ethics Committee has been met with resistance. Shivambu plans to take the Committee to court after being penalised for undisclosed payments amounting to R180,000 received from the now-defunct VBS Mutual Bank.

The punishment includes a nine-day salary docking for Shivambu, who failed to disclose to Parliament three payments received from the bank. This follows a series of investigations on a 2019 complaint by the Democratic Alliance that EFF leaders Julius Malema and Shivambu had possibly breached the code of ethical conduct for non-disclosure of money received from the bank. During the probe, no evidence was found showing any VBS Mutual Bank money deposited in Malema's bank account.

The EFF party has acknowledged the sanctions given to Shivambu, stating that these "donations" were loan amounts from Sgameka Pty Ltd. The party declared it would contest this sanction in court, disputing the committee's verdict that the amounts were donations.

Advocate Anthea Gordon, acting Registrar of Members’ Interests, confirmed that the VBS liquidation matter's affidavit disclosed the payments to Shivambu were made in 2017. The three instalments of R100,000, R30,000, and R50,000 were not disclosed by Shivambu initially, leading to the committee's decision.