KZN premier hints he may face chop

KwaZulu-Natal Premier Willies Mchunu has hinted that he might not finish his term of office.

Speaking at the provincial parliament in Pietermaritzburg last week, Mchunu said he was “always ready to vacate the position whenever the ANC decides that he should do so”.

Mchunu said this despite the fact that he has been in the position for only a year, after taking over from Senzo Mchunu, who was forced to resign as premier after losing his position as ANC chairperson in KwaZulu-Natal to former provincial secretary Sihle Zikalala in December last year following the provincial elective.

“If the ANC says ‘Mchunu, you have done your work, you should step aside’, it is my responsibility as a member who respects the ANC to say ‘ANC, I commend that you gave me an opportunity to fail’.

“I will tell the ANC that I will hand over to whoever you will appoint to replace me. I will never run away from him or her.”

Mchunu was responding to EFF MPL Vusi Khoza and National Freedom Party MPL Vikizitha Mlotshwa during a debate on the State of the Province Address, who said they could not see him finishing his term of office.

It has been predicted that he was just a caretaker premier while ANC provincial chairperson Zikalala, who has never been in the government before, was being groomed for the position.

Zikalala was appointed MEC for Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs when he joined the provincial government for the first time in June last year following his victory.

Khoza predicted that Mchunu had delivered his last State of the Province Address.

“Since they (ANC leaders) are threatening your position, I would like to say farewell, Macingwane (Mchunu), farewell maWillies,” said Khoza.

Speaking to The Star, Khoza said he had been informed by ANC members that senior party leaders wanted to replace Mchunu with Zikalala.

Mlotshwa said Mchunu was facing threats of being recalled if he did not comply with the ANC Youth League’s call to award 40% of government tenders to companies run by young people, which he said would benefit ANCYL members.

“The danger in that is that the premier is in a compromised position because if he does not see this through, the very same members of the youth league who made him the premier would remove him,” said Mlotshwa.

He added he had expected Mchunu to send a clear message in his speech to the ANCYL “that the province would award tenders based on merit and that the tenders would be awarded by the government and not by the youth league”.

Mchunu said it should not be opposition parties’ worry that he would be recalled because “you never campaigned the ANC to make me the premier; let them remove me”.

He would never run away from the reality, he added.

“Should the ANC take that decision any time, I will be part of implementing it. I cannot do otherwise, I can’t even be concerned.”

The Star’s sister paper, The Sunday Tribune, reported yesterday that there had been attempts within the ANC provincial executive committee (PEC) to get Mchunu removed, but President Jacob Zuma, who had powers to hire and recall premiers, had rejected the move.

“Instead he (Zuma) warned them (PEC) that any reshuffle would further divide the province,” the newspaper said.

ANC KwaZulu-Natal secretary Super Zuma described as “nonsense” the rumours that Mchunu might be replaced.