Former EFF Deputy President and MK Party Secretary-General Floyd Shivambu on Friday launched a new party with a ‘conceptualised’ logo.
Floyd Shivambu’s new party is already courting controversy as many highlight the similarities in Afrika Mayibuye Movement’s logo with that of the EFF.
Shivambu officially launched the party on Friday after months of touring the country to gauge the appetite on the ground for a new political movement.
In revealing the party’s logo, the motifs shared with Shivambu’s former party were strikingly evident.
‘I conceptualised the logo’
Speaking to media after the launch in Midrand, Shivambu denied his new logo was too similar to that of the EFF.
“It doesn’t look exactly like the EFF, it doesn’t even look similar. You must go an see the logo of the EFF then you must look at this logo, you will see that they are different,” Shivambu said.
“I conceptualised the logo of the EFF then as to what it means, so I know there is a difference in the logo of the EFF and this one,” he explained.
The Mayibuye logo features a star atop a purple circle enclosing a red and green banner, with a black first holding a spear-pen rising out of the south of the African continent.
The EFF logo also features a fist holding a spear rising out of the south of the continent, as well as a star, although mine shaft headgear is present.
The angles of the fists , placement of the stars and directions of the spears — also a prominent symbol in the uMkhonto weSizwe Party logo — are different.
Meaning of symbols
The Mayibuye manifesto outlines the meanings of the various symbols, most notably the spear-pen, which has the base of a spear and tip of a pen.
“The central and most distinctive symbol of the Afrika Mayibuye Movement logo shall be the spear-pen representing the fusion of intellectual struggle and revolutionary action,” states the manifesto.
The purple circle represents royalty, while the fist and African continent represent the pursuit of total African emancipation and freedom.
The term Afrika Mayibuye has been a long-standing liberation cry translated as “May Africa return” or “Come back Africa”.
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