The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal should swallow its pride and support the uMkhonto weSizwe Party to lead the government, according to Sanco in the province.
According to Sizwe Cele, the provincial secretary of Sanco, it is a historical fact that the leaders of the MK Party, ANC, and EFF are either current or former ANC leaders who previously collaborated on ANC projects and shared the same goals and values.
“It is for this reason that we remind these parties that the very formation of the ANC in 1912 in a church by religious leaders and traditional leaders was a response to the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910, which recognised only the Boer and British settlers,” Cele said.
In response to this diabolic insult, said Cele, “in 1911, Pixley ka Isaka Seme called on Africans to forget the differences of the past and unite in one national organisation”.
He quoted Seme: “We are one people; these divisions, these jealousies, are the cause of all our woes today.”
Cele added: “Déjà vu, we are likely to see those jealousies that Seme warned us about in 1912 raring their ugly heads again in 2024. If that happens, that would be a serious indictment on all African leaders.”
He said Sanco in KwaZulu-Natal would not mince its words to remind “our African political leaders of the core purpose of the struggle of the natives”.
“Thirty years into democracy, the land has not been brought back to the natives of the land, where more than 80% of the economy is still in the hands of the minority settlers,” he said.
Bring back the land
He said the struggle was never about expanded public works programme jobs or social grants.
“Instead, these are stop-gap interventions by the governing party, which accede to the fact that it has thus far been unable to claim black land from the hands of the greedy apartheid beneficiaries and their generation, and as a consequence, it has not delivered economic freedom for its voters.
“The core purpose of our struggle has always been to bring back the land and its related economy to their rightful owners.”
He said Sanco acknowledged the MK Party’s public statements indicating its reluctance to form a coalition government with the ANC, stating that the party’s stance was not based on political ideologies but rather on personal jealousies.
“Sanco KZN understands that the province and the country are traversing through a volatile political transitional period, which can benefit the country if handled with prowess but which can equally cost the African child a great deal if leaders [ANC, MK Party, IFP, and EFF] succumb to their historical petty jealousies and egos.”
He said it was for this reason that, like the leaders of 1912, Sanco invoked the spirit of African ancestors and Jehovah God to give current political leaders the Solomonic wisdom and the selfless spirit of humanity.
Government without ANC is unimaginable
Cele said that in the event that the MK Party was determined not to work with the ANC, then the party must consider getting into bed with the IFP because “a government without the ANC is unimaginable because that would mean the people of KZN will continue to suffer from the lack of service delivery as experienced between 1994 and 2004”.
“Hence, as a second option, in the application of the cost-benefit analysis, [Sanco] supports the view that the ANC KZN must use its numbers to support the IFP to lead the government of KwaZulu-Natal.”
He added that in this scenario, the IFP would appoint a premier, and the ANC would share some MEC positions.
“It is up to the IFP to negotiate additional support from other parties, which of course might include the DA and/or the MK Party.
“The ANC does not necessarily need to be in coalition with those parties that assist the IFP in ascending to power.
“Instead, the IFP’s relationship with those parties should be their own, while the ANC has an independent and direct relationship with the IFP alone.”
He added that this meant that the IFP should be at the centre of all the parties it needs in order to form a government in KwaZulu-Natal.
