What 'Shivambu Holdings' intends

POLITICAL economists have long entangled themselves in a circular debate - whether politics shape markets or markets shape politics - as if parsing some grand cosmic chicken-and-egg dilemma.

- SISEKO MAPOSA

To me, this has always been a false binary. The interplay is self-evident: while reciprocal influence exists, history's unrelenting verdict is that material conditions shape everything, including politics and its actors.

Which brings us to the spectacle of our moment. Floyd Shivambu has left many baffled following his recent press conference on June 19. What are we to make of a man who declares unwavering loyalty to a party while simultaneously plotting its potential replacement? A loyalist who now embarks on a national tour to gauge whether the movement he claims to cherish should be abandoned altogether.

One who vows never to resign yet taunts the MK Party to expel him. Let me not even unpack the comments he made about the EFF’s Julius Malelma, and other insinuations that Duduzile Zuma is both chemically compromised and digitally unhinged.