Durban — As the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) engages in a “cleansing” drive to spew out all its “infiltrators” there is growing rebellion as some leaders call for the party to hold its elective conference.
Formed in September last year by Jabulani Khumalo, later expelled by current leader and former president Jacob Zuma, the party has yet to hold its elective conference to elect new leaders.
The Daily News recently reported that Zuma had assembled a team of senior party leaders to hunt down infiltrators alleged to be working with the ANC to destabilise the MKP in KwaZulu-Natal, the heartland of the party.
After dramatically sacking party secretary-general Arthur Zwane recently, Zuma dropped the axe again on 18 MPs, saying its list was “sabotaged” and included people who were not supposed to be there.
MKP spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndhlela said: “Our candidate list that was submitted to the IEC, in effect, was sabotaged.
“There was a case that we opened at the Sandton police station, where we cited certain irregularities of names that were put in there that were not supposed to be there. Our strategy was never to have them on the list in the first place,” Ndhlela said.
The party said it would announce the replacements soon. This is because the party was in a race against time to hold a conference to elect party leaders and structures.
Mthandeni Chonco from Uthukela and Bongani Msomi from the Harry Gwala region – who were among the eight leaders who recently wrote to the national office calling for the party to hold a national conference – told the Daily News that the party should have an elective conference “soon”.
“We are not fighting with anyone, we just want to have an elective conference so that we have structures in place. We love the MK Party, that is why we want to legitimise it by having elected structures in place.
“We are a big party and we believe that we need to have structures in place so that we continue with our struggle of freeing our people from poverty and inequality,” said Chonco.
Msomi said: “We just want to have elected structures in place so that there is stability in our party.”
Other leaders were from the eThekwini, Uthukela, Ilembe, Zululand and King Cetshwayo regions.
Meanwhile, the conduct of members of the MKP in the provincial legislature was reportedly being closely monitored to identify those who have allegedly been deployed by the ANC to infiltrate the party.
Senior MKP member Dr Kwazi Mbanjwa recently told the Daily News that Zuma had assembled a team of senior party leaders to hunt down the alleged infiltrators.
Party spokesperson Ndhlela has repeatedly said that the party was not in a rush to hold its elective conference.
“We’ve seen rallies of ours which were paid for by the ANC people. We don’t want those tendencies of the ANC here. That’s why we are going to take our time, and we are not going to be put under pressure to set up structures and go to the elective conference,” said Ndhlela.
Political analyst Professor Sipho Seepe said: “Contrary to the view that the MK Party is unstable, it is actually stable and dealing with internal party issues in a good way. It is expected that a new party, such as the MK Party, faces internal issues. This is not something that is unusual.”
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