KwaZulu-Natal Umkhonto Wesizwe Party (MKP) leader Willies Mchunu says his party has not abandoned its bid to take over the political reins in the province.
“People wanted the province to be governed by the MK Party (MKP). The numbers are saying that. Why deny voters their party of choice. There are political parties who we are speaking to, and they share the sentiments that MK was cheated. It should have been allowed to form a government,” said the former KwaZulu-Natal premier.
Mchunu was coy about who his party is talking to
The former SACP leader did not reveal the parties to the negotiation.
“All I can tell you is that we’re speaking to progressive forces,” he said.
But Sunday World understands that the SACP is among the parties that the MKP has engaged. The party also hopes it could cause the ANC to dump the IFP and DA to co-govern the province joined by either the NFP or EFF.
The MKP amassed the majority of the votes at 45.3% in last May’s provincial elections. It was however elbowed out of power through a governing pact between the IFP, DA, ANC and the NFP.
MKP continues to claim the elections were rigged against it
MKP national chairperson Nkosinathi Nhleko said his party’s assertion that the elections were rigged will be vindicated in court. The MKP says it has overwhelming evidence that a substantial portion of its votes were stolen. This to deny it the opportunity to govern, especially in KZN, the party claims.
The province is now the second biggest contributor to national gross domestic product (GDP) after Gauteng.
“The fact of the matter is that we became a threat to everybody and therefore people had to scamper around and do a whole lot of things. There are a lot of things that went wrong during [the] elections. For instance, a party that cannot even attract 5 000 people to a rally is number two in terms of governance structure of South Africa. It’s impossible. In Emsinga for instance you had parties like Patriotic Alliance and Good Party receiving votes,” said Nhleko.
The bid to take over the KZN government was also highlighted by new provincial party chief whip Mervyn Dirks recently. Dirks said that the conditions were ripe for the move since a majority of senior ANC leaders in KZN were warming up to an MKP-ANC collaboration.
