First deputy president, Robert Nwendo and two deputy secretaries have resigned from the party, sparking speculation of a leadership tussle. Shivambu was speaking to the media in Soweto, south of Johannesburg, where he provided an update on the party’s preparedness to hold its inaugural National Convention.

“When you constitute leadership you somehow become a microcosm or a reflection of society as a whole. But the resolve we had from the beginning was that we do not tip-toe around wrongdoing and incompetence. So we confront incompetence directly and we do not gossip about it so the resignations as the National Chair has said is because of incompetent people who are unable to do the organisational work and we did a scientific measure and assessment of their contribution, it was not adding value to the organisation,” he said.