The battle for eThekwini: MK party ‘won’t bother’ with party out to block them from power

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uMkhonto weSizwe party (MKP)’s KwaZulu-Natal provincial convenor, Willies Mchunu, says his party is intent on being in charge in the City of eThekwini and will not accept a repeat of being the most-voted-for party but not in charge.

Speaking to The Citizen on Friday, Mchunu said the party is intent on governing eThekwini.

“How that will happen and how that will be done in order for that to happen will be decided firstly by the number of votes and the decisions of the MK Party leadership,” he said.

With 89% of the votes in the metro announced, the party held around 40%, followed by the DA at 24.4% and the ANC at 16.7%.

Mchunu said coalitions in KwaZulu-Natal and other parts of the country are a “reality”.

“The electorate forces you into them, and if we have to go into coalitions, the decision of the MK Party is clear: we will talk to people; we will talk to all political parties who are prepared to talk to us.

“We know those who hate us, and we will not bother them. There is a party that hates us; they have made it their task to block us from going into government,” he said, without naming the party.

Mchunu said it is “painful” that the MK Party is a majority party in the KwaZulu-Natal legislature but is not part of the governing coalition.

“We do not accept that, but it’s our task to do everything within our power and within the law to take over the power in the provincial legislature and in the municipalities where it’s feasible. We will do that,” he said.

Mchunu said it will not be possible to try and change the structure of the provincial legislature through municipal coalition talks.

“I do not think so. I think in terms of the provincial legislature you will remember that we have already spoken to parties. You will remember that there are parties that agree with us in the legislature. We are not going to fit that in here. Every municipality will be taken in terms of its own peculiarity.

“For instance, there are municipalities where we may find it unnecessary to talk to the EFF, or the EFF may not be there, but they are part of the progressive block of parties. It’s not going to be that we are ignoring them.

“We will be talking to a party that is relevant in that institution. If it’s parties, then we will be talking to parties,” he said.

Mchunu defended the MK Party’s decision to keep changing top leadership.

“When you interpret a strength as a weakness, you may make a mistake. It’s not a weakness to get rid of non-performing people.

“It’s the first time that I hear people saying ‘Don’t get rid of that person even though they are not performing’”.

“It’s a strength when people are not performing in accordance with the expectations of the organisation and the organisation takes a decision on them.”

He said the MK Party is new and must be given space to find the right people to fill leadership positions.

“A new party must be expected to try this one and try that one until we get the right people,” he said.

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