Staff Reporter
ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema’s right-hand man, spokesman Floyd Shivambu, appears not to be walking the talk on some of his public pronouncements, especially regarding the need for responsible sexual lifestyles among young people.
This is according to a story in Drum magazine, which reports that a tug-of-war over the paternity of his live-in lover Andile Masuku’s newborn baby has thrown their romance into the wilderness.
If SABC weather presenter Masuku’s claims are anything to go by, Shivambu, one of the public faces of the league’s “one girlfriend, one boyfriend” slogan, is clearly setting one set of rules for the youth and different ones for himself.
Drum reported this week that Shivambu had denied fathering the baby with Masuku, mother of his other child, claiming he had “nothing to do” with the boy.
But Masuku in turn accused him of being “promiscuous”.
Yesterday, Shivambu could not be reached for comment, as he was in the youth league lekgotla’s closed sessions.
The youth league’s safe-sex slogan, championed by Shivambu and Malema, among others, discourages cheating among the youth and is often used to take a jibe at President Jacob Zuma’s polygamous lifestyle.
According to the weekly magazine, Shivambu only acknowledged that he was the father of Masuku’s second child, nine-month-old Katekani. Masuku has three children.
In a terse e-mail to Drum, the youth leader claimed that Masuku had been cheating on him and distanced himself from the new child.
The e-mail was written in response to a story published by the magazine on February 2, titled “A Sweet Surprise”, announcing the new member of the Shivambu family, born on February 1.
“Please note it on record that I am not involved with the child she is caring. I publicly acknowledged and I know of Katekani as my child. I demand (an) immediate apology as I have nothing to do with the pregnancy of Andile Masuku. I have forwarded the e-mail and communicated with Andile that she must also stop spreading lies about my name (sic). I am not the father of her child and she knows that very well,” read the e-mail, which Drum published verbatim.
But an angry and sobbing Masuku hit back and accused Shivambu of being “childish” and of sleeping around: “He must just grow up and be a man. I don’t have time for his childish games. Whatever he’s going through in his political life has made him a bitter man. Sadly it’s affecting those who are close to him. I seriously don’t deserve to be treated like s**t.”
The 29-year-old Morning Live presenter was convinced that the youth leader had made his allegations as revenge because she had turned down his suggestion that the unplanned pregnancy be terminated.
According to the magazine, Masuku would “rather struggle” with her children if Shivambu was not prepared to be part of their lives.
The weatherwoman said Shivambu’s abusive e-mails and text messages had forced her to change her cellphone number and e-mail address. “I could no longer take it,” Masuku was quoted as saying.
“Floyd is promiscuous and he thought I would stick around and watch him play me with different girls. I have kids and a future to worry about instead of a grown man who doesn’t know what he wants.”
She added that Shivambu was a bully boy who did not take kindly to being asked to account for his alleged philandering lifestyle.
“I could not live with his lifestyle of over-indulgence at parties and drinking almost every day. He would come home very late at night and didn’t want me asking where he had been,” Masuku told Drum.
But Shivambu was not finished with the mother of his child.
He even disowned her, according to the magazine, saying he had never dated her in the first place.
This was despite having arrived at events with Masuku, including the launch of Loocha Magazine, which he helped publish.
Shivambu reportedly also denied that Masuku had moved in with him and his mother at the family home in Rivonia – but that was denied by his own mother, Constance Shivambu, who confirmed Masuku’s version that she left the family home only in December.
“If Floyd is not certain about the paternity of the boy, why doesn’t he go for a blood test and stop hurting Andile and Katekani?” she reportedly asked. Constance is said to have welcomed the new baby boy with open arms.