The uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) will launch a fresh bid to take control of the KwaZulu-Natal government from the coalition led by Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP).
Last week, Tony Yengeni, the party’s second deputy president, revealed the party’s intention to file a new motion of no-confidence in Premier Thami Ntuli. This after a previous motion, which the provincial parliament voted on in December, failed.
“Together with the NFP and the EFF, we can put the vote of no-confidence back into the legislature and make a very big dent against the current government … We are ready to take them on,” he told Newzroom Afrika.
“The vote of no-confidence is primarily against the premier because the premier has exhibited very corrupt ways of handling the state of KwaZulu-Natal, mismanagement, corruption, nepotism, abusing of state resources.”
On Wednesday, the IFP’s national chairperson, Blessed Gwala, described the MKP’s renewed bid to remove Ntuli as a “desperate” move.
“This motion and its accompanying violence and threats of instability and Gender Based Violence have no place in KZN, South Africa or anywhere else in the world. The looters and enablers of state capture of yesteryear cannot be trusted as the peoples messiahs of today.”
He said the party continued to view the NFP as a partner in the government of provincial unity (GPU), as there had been no formal notice of withdrawal.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Alliance (DA) remains committed to the GPU. “We’re still confident that we can come to a solution,” Francois Rogers, the party’s leader in the province and MEC of Finance, told Salaamedia.
He questioned the MKP’s sincerity in its allegations against the premier and reduced its endeavour to “nothing more than political grandstanding”.
“I would imagine that if you’re an effective opposition and you have evidence of corruption and misuse of state resources, the first thing you would do is open a criminal case or get the SIU [Special Investigating Unit] to investigate,” he stated.
Professor Andre Duvenhage, political analyst affiliated with North West University (NWU), said the MKP was after the province’s R158 billion budget.
“It is, for the MK Party, critical to gain some sort of control over KZN, to establish themselves and to prepare for the local government elections. They will throughout this year try to take over the government of provincial unity and they won’t stop before they achieve it some way or another.”
Duvenhage predicted further instability as political parties prepared to face each other in the upcoming municipal elections, which are expected to take place in November.
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Image: KwaZulu-Natal Premier Thami Ntuli. Credit: Polity
